Possible flawwith HovaBator design. Anyone else noticed this?

[Jason O]

I hatched my first batch of chicks with a forced air Hova Bator last week. Now, nothing is perfect and I'm sure this is one of the better incubators on the market. However I noticed what might be a flaw.
It's obvious with a forced air, that certain areas of the incubator have a really good breeze going from the fan. You can tell from hatched chicks that in certain areas their fuzz is blowing like crazy from the fan. Now, having said that, my first egg that showed signs of breaking out was still in its shell 15 hours later. Three had hatched during all this and were fine.
Nothing short of surgery, hours of chirping, and more than I want to describe was involved in trying to save this chick. I was able to save this little guy and I ended up losing other non hatched eggs in the process I'm sure.
Now I know some start and never make it out and that's just the way nature goes. However the placement of this egg was in the direct path of the breeze from the fan. (Noticed after all this was over) What I noticed was this.
A chick that is the least bit slow at all will get trapped because of this fan breeze. As soon as the chick gets a decent hole started the FAN is drying up the membrane faster than the chick can break out. It turns it into nothing short of hard rubber. I know there are other reasons (humidity, other factors etc) That can cause issues. But I'm very convinced this fan breeze is an issue.
Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe this has caused a lot of losses for people, who thought it was just nature and a chick that was not meant to be.

 

[josie63]

I have a still air LG and I loose a lot of chicks due to the inside of the shell turning very tough rubbery like, I think they call this shrink wraped. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I keep a close eye on the hum. and temp. But I can only get about 1/4 of my eggs to hatch. I always check the eggs that don't hatch and they have fully developed chicks in them, but they are dead. I feel like giving up.

 

[valley ranch]

Jason, Is it possible to turn the fan off without turning off the heat? If not you could instal a switch. I have a homemade, haven't seen one like yours close up.

 

[Rbl4life]

i also have a home made one with a fan, but the fan pulls the air from the chicks into the wall and circulates it that way. It seems to work great.

 

[aprophet]

the fan should be blowing at the top of the incubator ( it should be aprox 1-2" away form the top) mine does and I constantly have 85%-100% hatches this is my own eggs not shipped . On shipped eggs I do from 40-60% fairly constantly

 

[jvls1942]

I have a couple of 2000 egg incubators.. the fans in them will make your hair blow when you open the door.. that tiny fan in the hova is nothing compare to these.. I would look for another reason for your sticky chicky.. i have Hova and LG with fans also,, love them.. no sticky..

 

[Jason O]

Thanks for the responses. I will try not to jump to anything to drastic about the model. Again the chick was a little slow. If it would have
been cutting away at a normal speed, I don't think there would have been a problem.
I noticed it was able to cut away about a 1/4 of the shell at a slow pace and then was stuck. When I checked everything out the membrane had fallen (in the area I could see) from the shell and had seemed to rubberize. Now that I think about it, it had a hard time moving around. Maybe it simply could not turn itself inside the egg to reach where it needed.
Thanks again.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this almost sounds like you need to check the accuracy of your hygrometer it sounds like the humidity was too low

 

[scoopy82]

I just hatched some chicks in my hoverbator 1602N with a fan and the first chick to hatch was directly under the fan. It pipped last night and after reading you post I wondered wether i should have moved it out of the way, as I could see the broken membrane litterally flapping with the breeze, but I left it and it hatched just fine. My humidity was 65%, I was almost surprised there wasn't a proplem as I see the merit in your theory. It was a strong little chick though.

 

[aprophet]

It does not appear to be an issue in the 1602 HB I added a fan to Maybe HB is doing something wrong and I am doing it right LOL