Not all the eggs hatched :(

[Thegabberjackranch]

This is my first attempt at hatching eggs... and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. We bought a large 82 egg incubator, that has the turners and all the fancy stuff. On our first attempt we used 41 eggs, and followed the directions to a T. Of the 41 eggs, only 12 hatched. I opened the remaining eggs, 11 of them were not fertilized, and the rest were at different stages of development. The eggs were all layed on the same day, as well as put in the incubator at the exact same time...I am at a loss as to why only 12 hatched, and the other ones that were fertilized, were at different stages of development. Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you so much

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Gosh, that's strange for non-shipped eggs. What kind of bator is it? Did you have any temperature or humidity problems?

 

[Thegabberjackranch]

It was a custom 82 egg incubator (It looks like a two drawer file cabinet, it had a pretty accurate temperature gauge (two 100w bulbs) and it kicks off anytime it gets above 100 degrees, and two water bowls that we kept full at all times. So we assumed the humidity was what it was supposed to be. I was so very disappointed. Any feedback would be wonderful, thank you so much

 

[KansasBoy]

So you didn't actually have a humidity gauge to keep an eye on levels? It doesn't take much to have it go too high!

 

[Thegabberjackranch]

Hummmm.....I didn't realize that too much humidity would cause a problem, I only assumed that lack of water would cause you problems. Thank you for giving me something to think about, much appreciated <3

 

[SJensen]

How much condensation did you have inside the incubator? My first time I was guessing at humidity as well and had a poor hatch because it was too high.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

You definitely need a hygrometer to know what's going on in there. That could explain the less-than-satisfactory hatch results.
The good news is: it's a really simple fix!

 

[Thegabberjackranch]

The window was 12x18, and it might have had a 2x2 or 3x3 spot on it....I am just at a loss as to why so many eggs had different development levels all in the same batch...Very frustrating!!