I haven't been very successful with my chicken hatches while I have no problem with the quail. I'm hoping I can get some feedback.
The basics... I have a forced air styrofoam incubator. I use an automatic egg turner. The eggs are also put in the egg turner as they are collected and waiting to be set. My temperatures stay pretty consistent at 99.5. I try to keep humidity around 50% which is easy during our normally dry climate though it did fluctuated a lot during very rainy weather. I try to get to 65% at lockdown. I have the thermometer/hygrometer on the incubator, a separate thermometer/hygrometer used in lizard tanks, and a third thermometer. They have always had the same readings.
I seem to have two major issues. One is that many of the eggs are infertile. I thought it was because the eggs were from new layers. In my last hatch I set 25 eggs and only 13 were fertile. The bulk of those eggs were from new layers but they had been laying for a few months at that point. I have 7 hens/pullets, a rooster, and a cockerel. There is a little chasing but for the majority of the time they all get along and don't seem stressed. I had lower fertility rates when it was just the rooster mating the girls, too. The girls are usually with the rooster and the cockerel is not permitted to mate the girls very often. Could it be the rooster's fertility is low?
My other issue is eggs developing nicely and on time but then they die in egg. They never pip. The worst is my Blue Ameraucana eggs. I have set a few and have yet to hatch a single one. In my last hatch I had 5 hen eggs that were doing great but they never hatched. I opened a few eggs on day 25 and they were developed part way but it looked like a lot of liquid in the egg. I have no idea if that is normal. I would guess they stopped developing between days 15-17. But I could be wrong. All the pullet eggs from that batch hatched on days 19 and 20.
I won't be setting any eggs until next Spring but I want to figure this out. Anyone know what is causing my problems or how I can fix it?
The basics... I have a forced air styrofoam incubator. I use an automatic egg turner. The eggs are also put in the egg turner as they are collected and waiting to be set. My temperatures stay pretty consistent at 99.5. I try to keep humidity around 50% which is easy during our normally dry climate though it did fluctuated a lot during very rainy weather. I try to get to 65% at lockdown. I have the thermometer/hygrometer on the incubator, a separate thermometer/hygrometer used in lizard tanks, and a third thermometer. They have always had the same readings.
I seem to have two major issues. One is that many of the eggs are infertile. I thought it was because the eggs were from new layers. In my last hatch I set 25 eggs and only 13 were fertile. The bulk of those eggs were from new layers but they had been laying for a few months at that point. I have 7 hens/pullets, a rooster, and a cockerel. There is a little chasing but for the majority of the time they all get along and don't seem stressed. I had lower fertility rates when it was just the rooster mating the girls, too. The girls are usually with the rooster and the cockerel is not permitted to mate the girls very often. Could it be the rooster's fertility is low?
My other issue is eggs developing nicely and on time but then they die in egg. They never pip. The worst is my Blue Ameraucana eggs. I have set a few and have yet to hatch a single one. In my last hatch I had 5 hen eggs that were doing great but they never hatched. I opened a few eggs on day 25 and they were developed part way but it looked like a lot of liquid in the egg. I have no idea if that is normal. I would guess they stopped developing between days 15-17. But I could be wrong. All the pullet eggs from that batch hatched on days 19 and 20.
I won't be setting any eggs until next Spring but I want to figure this out. Anyone know what is causing my problems or how I can fix it?
