Nurture Right 360, What worked for you?

[Eliza_Snyder]

I'm new to hatching, and ended up buying a NR360 incu. I have been overall pleased with it but my first hatch was less than 25%. I had ordered some eggs online and also picked up some locally, let them all sit for 24 hours at room temp and added them to my incubator. I had several with detached air cells that I wasn't aware of till day 12 or so. I figured none of my shipped eggs would hatch due to how bad the postal service shook them up. But ended up have 2 of those (out of 9) and only 2 of the local eggs hatch. All were fertile but many died off early and a few made it to lockdown but never piped. So only 4 made it. I cleaned it and reset it and now have my next batch in. I'm wondering what I could have done wrong. My heat was consistent around 99.5-100 and I kept my humidity at 40% till lockdown and bumped it up to 70%. I realized that was way to high as by the time the 4th chick hatched my humidity was 91% and my heat had dropped to around 97. So I got the hatched babys out and dried them off and set them under my heat lamp. They all made it and are thriving. But I'm at a loss as to why the others didn't hatch. Was my humidity too high? When the temp dropped, did that kill them? No matter what I did I couldn't get the heat up fast enough.

 

[Pyxis]

My first question would be, did you check the built in displays against a thermometer and hygrometer that are calibrated and you know to be correct? Usually the NR360 displays are fairly accurate, but it's possible for them to be off. If you haven't done that, that's what I would start with.

Secondly, did you monitor the air cell growth or egg weight loss to make sure the eggs were losing the correct amount of moisture? If not, the humidity could have been wrong. Did you happen to open up any of the eggs that didn't hatch to see what went wrong? If you did, was there excess fluid, very dry, etc?

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I second Pyxis, I would definitely calibrate a secondary thermometer to check the unit's temp against. Here is a good link on calibrating. I personally used a meat thermometer, they're inexpensive and easy to calibrate.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...incubator-thermometers-and-hygrometers.73634/
Did you make sure to set the days till hatch on the NR360? If you don't reset the days to 21 the turner won't turn because it's set to stop turning on day 18.

Sometimes no matter how closely we watch the incubator and monitor everything to the best of our abilities the hatches fail due to other reasons, rough shipping, genetic or vitamin issues in the breeding flock, bacteria, improper handling and storing of the hatching eggs, it could have been numerous things. I would try local eggs again first, from a different supplier than you used last time, preferably one that already has a good reputation, then you're setting yourself up for the best outcome from the beginning so that you can better pinpoint what may need to be adjusted, if anything. Happy hatching!

 

[Brianwmla]

I agree with the advice given by CluckNDoodle on resetting the hatch days. On my second use of the 360, I manually rolled the days back and didn't realize the turner wasn't working until like day 11. You need to hold down the buttons for 5 seconds and reset the whole timer to make the turner work automatically again. this cost me on my hatchrate.

If the few chicks that did hatch for you were on the right day, your temps are probably fine. I purchased three different thermometers and all of them read temps different than my NR360 and each other. On the first use I was able to hatch 15 out of 19 fertile shipped eggs. Shipped eggs are a crapshoot. I hatched none out of 8 on my first attempt using a different incubator.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the others. Make sure your thermometer and hygrometer are calibrated. Your tempperature and humidity seems fine to me. The humidity will go up when the chicks hatch. If I take chicks out to dry I usually have to mist the eggs with warm water to get the humidity up a little quicker. I've never used that incubator. Did you candle them around day 18? I do not weigh my eggs or check the air cells. I just put 5 dozen eggs in my incubator. Years ago I did candle around day 10 but now I only candle on day 18 when I put the eggs in the hatchers. Fertility may be a factor. You will be able to determine that prior to hatching when you candle. I do mark some eggs (X) I think could be quitters but leave them in the incubator. You never know. Good luck and have fun...

 

[cmom]

My very first hatch was barnyard eggs from a friend. That hatch was 60%. I gave him the chicks that hatched since they were his eggs. I had the humidity around 50/55%. Since I have lowered my incubation humidity <40% and have had much better hatches. Again, good luck and have fun...

 

[Knighstar679]

I have the NR360. I found that I usually have needed to run a little lower than the usual recommend humidity in it to get good hatches. But that will vary depending on your area. I know the 360 recommended a humidity around what you were using but I found myself that I ended up with a better hatch rate with lower humidity.