Need help improving hatch rates

[Mtnboomer]

Hello everyone! Hope all is well in these crazy times. I am reaching out to yall today for advice that may improve hatch rates or knowledge that will help me understand my low success rate.

1st off we have been giving chicks to a friend to hatch for us. Usually 24 at a time and we would get 19-20 avg chicks back. Which is awesome! But he has gotten busy with life and we don't want to add a
The burden of incubating our chicks, so we started out on our own.

I purchased a Brinsea 10 egg incubator with semi-auto turner which reduces the capacity to only 7 eggs. Per the product instructions, the temp has been set to 99.5 for the duration of use. Water is filled daily to regulate humidity, but there is no guage to indicate exact humidity level within the unit. Humidity is increased by adding more water for the last 2 days of incubation than normal. The eggs are turned 3x a day except during the last two days.

We have had 4 broods through the incubator with never more than 3 hatchlings at a time. Upon examining the unopened eggs, the chicks inside appear to be fully developed and ready to hatch but never do.

Why are these chicks reaching full development but failing to hatch?

(Our friend was asked and he only reinforced the necessity of increasing the humidity at the end, which we do)

All insights and suggestions welcomed. Thanks!

 

[ChickenEnthusiast2000]

I usually stop turning my eggs in the last 3 days (It depends on breed) and i turn them 4 times. I have a hatch rate of 6 out of 7

 

[Lovem all]

Have you tried playing peeping baby noises when they start to hatch to encourage them all?

 

[Trisseh]

Do you have a secondary thermometer/hygrometer in there? Incubators don’t always have completely accurate readings and you may be a little over or under what you should be for temps. And the guidelines in the manual are not always all that accurate for humidity because every location (and home, and room in the home!) is different and has different requirements. Investing in a reptile thermometer/hygrometer with a probe is what many of us do, and once you calibrate it, you’ll be able to see where you’re actually at.

Do you candle during incubation? This is an invaluable tool when you’re adjusting the humidity especially, and also allows you to catch any eggs that quit ahead of time. And it’s neat to see!

Another method of tracking the humidity/weight loss is to weigh the eggs. If this is of interest to you I can rustle up the thread on here that describes this in more detail.

 

[Punkybrewster]

My guess would be too high humidity.
You need to get a hygrometer to place inside the incubator. You can find one in the reptile section of a pet store or walmart.

When using my brinsea i dont add water until lockdown. If you dont feel comfortable doing that, add just a teaspoon of water every 3 days and then fill up the water resevoir at lock down.

Monitoring the air cells on day 7, 14 and 18 is also very helpful. They will let you know if you need more or less humidity.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Do you have a secondary thermometer/hygrometer in there? Incubators don’t always have completely accurate readings and you may be a little over or under what you should be for temps. And the guidelines in the manual are not always all that accurate for humidity because every location (and home, and room in the home!) is different and has different requirements. Investing in a reptile thermometer/hygrometer with a probe is what many of us do, and once you calibrate it, you’ll be able to see where you’re actually at.

Do you candle during incubation? This is an invaluable tool when you’re adjusting the humidity especially, and also allows you to catch any eggs that quit ahead of time. And it’s neat to see!

Another method of tracking the humidity/weight loss is to weigh the eggs. If this is of interest to you I can rustle up the thread on here that describes this in more detail.

We candle at 7-8 days. So far we have 100% fertility and 100% development. We open the unhatched eggs and there are fully developed chicks in each.

Thank you for the offer, but I have found literature on the subject and am learning all i can.

 

[Trisseh]

We candle at 7-8 days. So far we have 100% fertility and 100% development. We open the unhatched eggs and there are fully developed chicks in each.

Thank you for the offer, but I have found literature on the subject and am learning all i can.

How do the air cells look when you candle? That is also an indication of moisture loss. If your humidity is too high they don’t lose enough and the chicks can and do drown, or they get too big and can’t maneuver to pip properly. Watch for temp spikes as well, because this can also cause death - when embryos are gearing up to hatch they put out a lot more metabolic heat and can raise the temp in the incubator by quite a bit. I don’t notice it as much with the chicken eggs but the ducks especially put out a LOT of heat.

also, do the dead chicks still have unabsorbed yolk? I’m wondering if you’re getting late stage mortalities and not death at hatch/failure to pip.

another aspect that becomes important for embryos close to hatch is ventilation. I’m not familiar with the Brinsea products (I use cheapy janoel incubators haha) but I would double check where the vent holes are, and ensure they are all as open as can be during the late stages of incubation.

as for turning and when to stop, the general rule of thumb is to stop turning on day 18, although it can be as early as day 14 with no ill effects. If you continue turning too long it can result in more malpositions. Are all of the chicks appearing to be properly positioned, or are some of them backwards, head between legs, etc? malpositioned chicks are also at higher risk of being unable to hatch.

And just to clarify - these are eggs from your own birds that you’re hatching? Or from another source?

lots of questions but we need lots of answers to help you troubleshoot.

 

[Mtnboomer]

How do the air cells look when you candle? That is also an indication of moisture loss. If your humidity is too high they don’t lose enough and the chicks can and do drown, or they get too big and can’t maneuver to pip properly. Watch for temp spikes as well, because this can also cause death - when embryos are gearing up to hatch they put out a lot more metabolic heat and can raise the temp in the incubator by quite a bit. I don’t notice it as much with the chicken eggs but the ducks especially put out a LOT of heat.

also, do the dead chicks still have unabsorbed yolk? I’m wondering if you’re getting late stage mortalities and not death at hatch/failure to pip.

another aspect that becomes important for embryos close to hatch is ventilation. I’m not familiar with the Brinsea products (I use cheapy janoel incubators haha) but I would double check where the vent holes are, and ensure they are all as open as can be during the late stages of incubation.

as for turning and when to stop, the general rule of thumb is to stop turning on day 18, although it can be as early as day 14 with no ill effects. If you continue turning too long it can result in more malpositions. Are all of the chicks appearing to be properly positioned, or are some of them backwards, head between legs, etc? malpositioned chicks are also at higher risk of being unable to hatch.

And just to clarify - these are eggs from your own birds that you’re hatching? Or from another source?

lots of questions but we need lots of answers to help you troubleshoot.

These are our own eggs from our birds. The chicks all appear to be in the correct position. There is little to no yolk.
The last chick out of the egg during each hatch seems to have a "heavy head." They seem as if their head is too big for body and it takes them longer to be able to get up znd moving around. The chicks in the unhatched eggs also appear to have larger heads than the ones that come out of the rgg on their own.
Thanks everyone!