Only half my guinea eggs have hatched!

[sunflower7]

I've hatched 15 keets and still waiting on the other 17. Most of them hatched about day 27-29. Is this normal? I am new at hatching guineas! I have the humidity at 80% because that's what most of my research advised. On the site here, I see that some hatch at 60%. I hope I haven't drowned them! The 15 that hatched were all good and strong without any hatching problems. My incubator has a fan so I am hoping the heat was distributed evenly. Anybody have any ideas? Am I just being over anxious yet??

 

[red horse ranch]

If the eggs were all placed in the incubator at the same time then it's unlikely the remaining ones will hatch. There are so many things that can affect a poor hatch rate. Your humidity may have been a little high but not enough to drown them. I usually try to stay around 65% for the hatch because it is what is recommended for my incubator. But a lot of people recommend higher humidity and it may work right for them.

Often times a poor hatch can be caused by poor nutrition of the breeders. But hatching is hard work for the keets and some of them just give up and don't make it out of the egg.

I've had 100% hatches but I've also had 30% hatch rates. Most of the time it's somewhere in between.

 

[sunflower7]

Thanks! I had read on here somewhere, about trying a "dry hatch" until lock down then adding some humidity. I have had pretty good luck with this. I started hatching a new bunch about 3 days ago, and they have all hatched except 3 (I started out with 12). I will give them another 4 or 5 days before I give up on them.

 

[Kimberly09]

I incubate my eggs in the mid to high 40s and then at lockdown up the humidity between 70 and 75%. I've had great success with it