Poor Hatch, what went wrong?

[MaggieCoop]

I just finished day 24 of our hatch, we only had 2 chicks hatch out of 7 eggs. I cannot figure out where we went wrong. Our temperature was consistently 37.5-37.8 C in our auto turning incubator, humidity was kept at 55% since we live in the desert. I then put them into lockdown in our Little Giant Incubator on day 18, temps here were 99.5-100 F, and humidity was kept at 75-80%. I had two little ameraucana chicks hatch on day 21 and day 22, then nothing. I candled the eggs before locking them down and there were definitely chicks in there.

Other things to note, the breeds that did not hatch were 3 polish chicks and 1 seabright bantam and one ameraucana. The eggs were also shipped from Idaho, we are in Utah.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, breaks my heart to not have these guys hatch : (

 

[muddy75]

Was this hatch rate better? Or similar to the first???? I’m really thinking that your overall humidity was just too high for your area the first time. If ambient is only 10-15, you may want to stay in 30% range prior to lockdown. And 55-65% at lockdown and see if that improves hatch rates.

 

[muddy75]

I just finished day 24 of our hatch, we only had 2 chicks hatch out of 7 eggs. I cannot figure out where we went wrong. Our temperature was consistently 37.5-37.8 C in our auto turning incubator, humidity was kept at 55% since we live in the desert. I then put them into lockdown in our Little Giant Incubator on day 18, temps here were 99.5-100 F, and humidity was kept at 75-80%. I had two little ameraucana chicks hatch on day 21 and day 22, then nothing. I candled the eggs before locking them down and there were definitely chicks in there.

Other things to note, the breeds that did not hatch were 3 polish chicks and 1 seabright bantam and one ameraucana. The eggs were also shipped from Idaho, we are in Utah.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, breaks my heart to not have these guys hatch : (

Did you have accessory thermometer and salt-tested hygrometers to check for “cold spots” and accuracy of the incubator instruments? Did you open the unhatched eggs to look at phase of development???? While chicken eggs seem to be a bit more forgiving than other eggs in my experience, I would recommend a lower RH around 35-45 prior to lockdown and 65-75 from lockdown to hatch. It helps to know your ambient humidity levels and somewhat mimic those +/- 5% and +10-15% at lockdown

 

[MaggieCoop]

Did you have accessory thermometer and salt-tested hygrometers to check for “cold spots” and accuracy of the incubator instruments? Did you open the unhatched eggs to look at phase of development???? While chicken eggs seem to be a bit more forgiving than other eggs in my experience, I would recommend a lower RH around 35-45 prior to lockdown and 65-75 from lockdown to hatch. It helps to know your ambient humidity levels and somewhat mimic those +/- 5% and +10-15% at lockdown

Hey thank you for responding, I did not have an extra thermometer in the incubator this go around but did in my hatch last week and the temperatures matched, our ambient humidity is around 10-15%, I did put in an hygrometer this time and it was reading about the same as the incubator as well around 70-75%

 

[Mellowmalt]

so you candled the eggs on day 18 and saw live chicks at which point you moved them from their incubator into a Little Giant where 5 out of 7 never made it.
You did this without a thermometer when the little giant is renowned for not having an accurate reading on the display.
I think you have asnwered your question already but I will add that an incubator needs to be heated for 24 hours prior to moving eggs also and if not then it can easily overheat for a few hours before settling on the right values which could have caused those results too.