need sugestions on hatching using the little giant still air with adding the egg tuner and fan

[Lucy70]

howdy to all that can help! we have tried to hatch six batches of eggs in the last two year out of those batches we have only gotten three chicks and one duckling they were mailed to us because we live in La Barge Wyoming I have done everything that I read to do. Two of the chicks are a year old and doing good, my duckling is a couple months old and out with the ducks I ordered through the mail and my newest chick is a week old and doing good with her i had to peel her out and one other tried to hatch made it as far as cracking the shell but never made it that was what i got out of eight eggs and with my duckling same thing one hatched one other had a hole but never made it and the two chicks that are a year only two out of twelve. we had a mercury thermometer that came with incabator and my honey bought a digital temp/humidity one and another digital temp so we can keep temp and humidity as acurate as possible but the that came with incabator was the most accurate one my humidity was running about 60 to 75% or higher what can I do to get better results? If it matters we are also at about 7000 feet

 

[TheLukeMeister]

it sounds like you're chicks are getting shrink wrapped, do you ever open the incubator during lock down?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Calibrate the hygrometer with a salt test. During the hatch stage if the chicks don't jump out of the eggs they can start to dry and stick to the shell. Keeping the humidity 70% will aid in stopping that. I use to keep humidity at 65% to keep the inner egg from getting sticky but chicks hatch at night so the humidity spikes resulting in chicks stuck to shell. Anymore I'll be keeping 70%.

Are your birds piping on day 20, 21 or are your hatches late? Is the fan of proper size or did you put in a small computer fan? It's a forced air if the fan is of proper size. Are these all shipped eggs? That could be the problem right there. I've lived in a postal dead zone and that's about my results incubating shipped eggs. 1 to 3 hatching each attempt. Moved and tried shipped one more time- 70% hatch rate.

 

[Lucy70]

yes all batches of eggs are shipped because we live in a very small town in wyoming and the closest place that shipped eggs was Idaho i think and that was the duck eggs only got one and the humidity for ducks was higher than chicks two broke through shell only one got out and the lastest batch only one made it and i listened to my motherly instinct to peel it out it kept trying to get out and couldn't something kept telling me to help it out so i did and she is doing a ok. Fuzzbutt my duckling and the one that didn't make it was three days early and cricket my week old chick was three days late. I don't really hear the peeping till they have broken shell my hearing sucks was born that way

 

[Lucy70]

Oh also it is a fan for the Little Gaint

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Try craigslist or look for poultry fancier groups in your area to locate local fertile eggs. It will make all the difference in the world. Your hatching results were like mine were in a postal dead zone. I'd hatch 100% my eggs and 1 of 14 shipped in same incubation. It's futile to continue purchasing shipped eggs in your area. With some research and possibly two hour drive you'll find fellow poultry fanciers in your area.

 

[Lucy70]

thank you all for your suggestions we feel the same way so when we want to hatch again we will plan to go get them and transport them ourselves again thank you