Most of my eggs wont hatch?

[JAB123]

I have been trying to hatch my hens eggs in a still air incubator throughout the summer. Almost all of the chicks seem to make it full term and then die before they hatch. The only thing I can think is because they are inbred. I keep a close eye on the temp and humidity. Any suggestions anyone?

 

[sourland]

Have you checked/calibrated your temperature and humidity sensors. Inbreeding can cause hatching problems. I used to hatch eggs for a friend who had a highly inbred WCB Polish line - we're talking a minimum of 10 generations. Percentages were low, but quality was extremely high. He did very well showing them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll include these links to troubleshooting sites. They might help.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting

http://extension.msstate.edu/content/trouble-shooting-failures-egg-incubation

Illinois Incubation troubleshooting

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

There are different things that could cause that. In general, if the egg never develops or dies in the first week of incubation it's likely because of something that happened before incubation started. If it dies in the last week of incubation look to something that happened during incubation or hatching. There are exceptions, of course, there always are. Nothing is certain and this kind of stuff can be hard to figure out.

With a still air one thought is ventilation. The chicks need fresh air to breather just like you do. The older they are the more they need fresh air. Are your vents open?

The other thing with a still air is that warm air rises. Where you take the temperature vertically is important. When you go from incubation to lockdown are you lowering the eggs so much that they chill?

Good luck figuring this out.