Only 1 chick hatched three incubations in a row

[Florida Bullfrog]

My mind is open to all the possibilities being suggested to me.

Just note that batch 1 of the chicken eggs was a dry incubation. I immediately tried the dry method because it worked so well for the quail. When the first batch failed, I thought the problem was the dry method not working for me with the chicken eggs.

 

[FortCluck]

I'm honestly thinking it's the incubator itself. Everything you've described seems like you were doing everything perfectly. I'm hoping adding ventilation works.

Did you set the eggs yet?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I understand. It can be a mystery. One thing that stands out to me is that the successful hatch came from shipped eggs. The poor hatches came from your birds' eggs.

I feed them 16% laying crumbles, occasionally Purina game bird chow, oyster shell, leftovers from my garden, and whatever they get free ranging. They free range my 40 acre blueberry farm from daylight to dark. I’m in north Florida, so we don’t have cool weather until right now in mid November. Abundant insects and browse.

One of my Florida Cracker game hens just had a nice hatch. She is my first hen in this flock to set. I also sent a couple of dozen eggs to the University of Florida for one of their agg programs to hatch. I’m awaiting to hear how those did.

I’m reasonably sure its a ventilation problem. I’ve spent a lot of time since my initial post studying incubators on Youtube and it seems like most have quadruple or more times ventilation holes and larger size than this incubator has. To the point that my incubator seems ridiculously sealed in comparison.

Given that 2 chicken egg hatches were on time, I'm guessing that temperature wasn't the problem.
I highly recommend that you revisit the nutrition of the breeding flock.
Layer feed is sufficient to produce eating eggs but some of the vitamins and amino acids are too low to produce eggs with good hatchability.
Some feeds could contain methionine as low as .4% or less. For viable hatching eggs, it should be .5 to .6.
Lysine should be at least 1% and Cystine should be at least .75%.
Vitamin A should be at least 5,000 IU per pound. Many feeds are about 3,000.
Vitamin D should be 2,000 to 2,500 while most regular feeds contain about 1,000.
Vitamin E breeder feeds levels need to be over 50 i.u. per pound while non-breeder feeds are often at a level of 20 IU per pound.
These enhanced levels of nutrition should be made to the flock's diet about 3 weeks prior to collecting eggs for hatching.
Layer feed is for laying eating eggs. Breeder feed is for producing hatching eggs.

 

[ShannonR]

You haven't looked at all the possible causes of failure.
I wouldn't start modifying a new incubator without eliminating other causes.
After all, it hatched quail just fine, why wouldn't it hatch chickens without modifications?
A fan should circulate the air inside the incubator not pull air in or push it out. That would be excessive ventilation.
With what you describe, the first place I would look is at your breeder nutrition.
What do you feed your birds?

This. My first thought was something to do with your birds or their eggs. Just for fun, why not run another run through that bator using someone else's eggs? Not shipped eggs, if possible.

 

[FortCluck]

I understand. It can be a mystery. One thing that stands out to me is that the successful hatch came from shipped eggs. The poor hatches came from your birds' eggs.


Given that 2 chicken egg hatches were on time, I'm guessing that temperature wasn't the problem.
I highly recommend that you revisit the nutrition of the breeding flock.
Layer feed is sufficient to produce eating eggs but some of the vitamins and amino acids are too low to produce eggs with good hatchability.
Some feeds could contain methionine as low as .4% or less. For viable hatching eggs, it should be .5 to .6.
Lysine should be at least 1% and Cystine should be at least .75%.
Vitamin A should be at least 5,000 IU per pound. Many feeds are about 3,000.
Vitamin D should be 2,000 to 2,500 while most regular feeds contain about 1,000.
Vitamin E breeder feeds levels need to be over 50 i.u. per pound while non-breeder feeds are often at a level of 20 IU per pound.
These enhanced levels of nutrition should be made to the flock's diet about 3 weeks prior to collecting eggs for hatching.
Layer feed is for laying eating eggs. Breeder feed is for producing hatching eggs.

What do you recommend for breeder feed?

My flock eats the all flock by nutrena. It seems to be working well since every chick I've hatched from my flock has been in excellent health.

 

[Skippersnh]

i hatched my neighbors eggs and had a great hatch all they feed there poor chickens is corn
i doubt its the feed i feed my chickens cheap pellets from walmart and had a 90% hatch

 

[FortCluck]

i hatched my neighbors eggs and had a great hatch all they feed there poor chickens is corn
i doubt its the feed i feed my chickens cheap pellets from walmart and had a 90% hatch

Is it called Eggmaker? I went from all flock to eggmaker and my chickens started looking sickly. I switched back because it was making me nervous!

 

[Skippersnh]

yup its eggmaker ive been using it for 2 years

 

[Skippersnh]

probably not the best food

 

[FortCluck]

yup its eggmaker ive been using it for 2 years

I'm not sure if it's truly any different than any other layer feed. I think mine just like the all flock and the layer feed had less protein. I also have roosters and a Drake that aren't egg layers (obviously) so I don't like doing layer.