poor results from incubator

[Casey207908]

I purchased 20 fertile eggs. I candled them yesterday at day 13 and only 4 were making progress, all the others were duds. The company i bought them from assures me that all eggs are fertile but they can't control shipping etc. When i candled them the top half of the eggs looked a darker brown than the rest, maybe it was to hot? I am using the havabotor 1588 with fan and kept temp (according to the built in thermometer) at 99.5, but the temp does fluctuate a few tenths of degree in either way. Humidity at 60%-65%. I don't have a thermometer in the incubator....felt like I was being very cautious and keeping a good eye on this, surprised with the dissappointing results. Any advice for next time?

 

[bargain]

I would suggest getting a hygrometer and thermometer digital combo and then calibrating these before your next hatch. I have links to how to calibrate if you need them, please pm me. Thanks and have a blessed day. Nancy

 

[dazz02]

you don't need to be exactly correct with temperature and humidity, just think when a hen sits on her eggs she doesn't have a hygrometer and thermometer[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]. Around 37.5 degrees Celsius is fine[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I built my own incubator and used a dimmer switch to control the temperature - it works perfectly. I am having to fit a fan on to my incubator as the eggs kept going smelly and sweated even the ones which were close to fully developed. I think it needs better ventilation so hopefully this will help. I am also trying to conduct something to alter the humidity without me having to open the doors to add/remove trays of water as this alters the temperature and humidity which won't help the hatching rate.[/FONT]

 

[GAQuail]

I purchased 20 fertile eggs. I candled them yesterday at day 13 and only 4 were making progress, all the others were duds. The company i bought them from assures me that all eggs are fertile but they can't control shipping etc. When i candled them the top half of the eggs looked a darker brown than the rest, maybe it was to hot? I am using the havabotor 1588 with fan and kept temp (according to the built in thermometer) at 99.5, but the temp does fluctuate a few tenths of degree in either way. Humidity at 60%-65%. I don't have a thermometer in the incubator....felt like I was being very cautious and keeping a good eye on this, surprised with the dissappointing results. Any advice for next time?

The Hovabator 1588 Genesis a good incubator. I think you have an egg problem not and incubator problem. There is one thing that you stated that concerns me. If your humidity is 60-65% from the 1st day of incubation that is too high. It should only be at that level during lock down. If your hatching chicken eggs humidity from day 1-18 should be 40-45%.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

The Hovabator 1588 Genesis a good incubator. I think you have an egg problem not and incubator problem. There is one thing that you stated that concerns me. If your humidity is 60-65% from the 1st day of incubation that is too high. It should only be at that level during lock down. If your hatching chicken eggs humidity from day 1-18 should be 40-45%.

Ditto. Your humidity is much too high for the incubation, like GAQuail stated it only needs to be around 40-45% for the first 18 days.

The other problem might have been the shipping, even if you place you bought the eggs from assures you that they are fertile, the shipping could have damaged them. Shipping eggs is always a gamble, sometimes you end up with good results, sometimes you end up with nothing even from a reputable seller.

 

[Casey207908]

thanks for the help. for some reason i thought it had to be 60-65% humidity for first 18 days. I appreciate the help.

 

[Casey207908]

ok. i thought i read online that it had to be 60-65% humidity for first 18 days. I value your input and will keep humidity less next time.

 

[satay]

Agree with the others your humidity was way to high. I use 45% day 1 to 18 and 65% when in lock down.