Questions Concerning Nurture Right 360’s

[GunnyBun]

Could it possibly be that my hens are getting older? They are about 4-5 years old. I say this because my green eggs(which are from my newest hens) and my bantam eggs(which are new too) hatch when I incubate them.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Could it possibly be that my hens are getting older? They are about 4-5 years old. I say this because my green eggs(which are from my newest hens) and my bantam eggs(which are new too) hatch when I incubate them.

Ok, from your description I'm of course just making an educated guess from hatching entirely too many chicks over the years, lol.
Things to consider here, humidity is a tool just to allow for the eggs to lose the appropriate amount of weight. Too high and too low both have unfortunate complications.
As hens age, their eggs become more porous even when given plenty of calcium, so their eggs will lose weight more quickly.
I have experimented with many different incubators and they all have a sweet spot. For me in the NR360 it's around 45% for the first 18 days and increasing to 65% for hatch. These are the percentages that I have very rarely needed to adjust when closely monitoring weight loss no matter the breeds or age of the hens so I feel very comfortable suggesting those percentages even if you aren't on top of monitoring air cell growth or weight.

The fact that you have healthy development and then lose them, I think this is the most likely culprit. That's not to say I haven't encountered a bizarre genetic issue that caused a high occurrence of late quitters but it was one time, with one flock, out of soooo many hatches.

I hope this helps!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok, from your description I'm of course just making an educated guess from hatching entirely too many chicks over the years, lol.
Things to consider here, humidity is a tool just to allow for the eggs to lose the appropriate amount of weight. Too high and too low both have unfortunate complications.
As hens age, their eggs become more porous even when given plenty of calcium, so their eggs will lose weight more quickly.
I have experimented with many different incubators and they all have a sweet spot. For me in the NR360 it's around 45% for the first 18 days and increasing to 65% for hatch. These are the percentages that I have very rarely needed to adjust when closely monitoring weight loss no matter the breeds or age of the hens so I feel very comfortable suggesting those percentages even if you aren't on top of monitoring air cell growth or weight.

The fact that you have healthy development and then lose them, I think this is the most likely culprit. That's not to say I haven't encountered a bizarre genetic issue that caused a high occurrence of late quitters but it was one time, with one flock, out of soooo many hatches.

I hope this helps!

Also, I'll add that upon eggtopsies of that genetic issue, it was very obvious there was a problem and the chicks all had large heads, distended abdomens, and dwarfed limbs. When I repeated hatches from that flock the issues also repeated.

 

[GunnyBun]

Ok, from your description I'm of course just making an educated guess from hatching entirely too many chicks over the years, lol.
Things to consider here, humidity is a tool just to allow for the eggs to lose the appropriate amount of weight. Too high and too low both have unfortunate complications.
As hens age, their eggs become more porous even when given plenty of calcium, so their eggs will lose weight more quickly.
I have experimented with many different incubators and they all have a sweet spot. For me in the NR360 it's around 45% for the first 18 days and increasing to 65% for hatch. These are the percentages that I have very rarely needed to adjust when closely monitoring weight loss no matter the breeds or age of the hens so I feel very comfortable suggesting those percentages even if you aren't on top of monitoring air cell growth or weight.

The fact that you have healthy development and then lose them, I think this is the most likely culprit. That's not to say I haven't encountered a bizarre genetic issue that caused a high occurrence of late quitters but it was one time, with one flock, out of soooo many hatches.

I hope this helps!

Thank you! If this hatch turns out as bad as the others, then I will be definitely making adjustments before the next one!

 

[GunnyBun]

Also, I'll add that upon eggtopsies of that genetic issue, it was very obvious there was a problem and the chicks all had large heads, distended abdomens, and dwarfed limbs. When I repeated hatches from that flock the issues also repeated.

I will definitely be on the look out for signs like that!

 

[GunnyBun]

Ok, from your description I'm of course just making an educated guess from hatching entirely too many chicks over the years, lol.
Things to consider here, humidity is a tool just to allow for the eggs to lose the appropriate amount of weight. Too high and too low both have unfortunate complications.
As hens age, their eggs become more porous even when given plenty of calcium, so their eggs will lose weight more quickly.
I have experimented with many different incubators and they all have a sweet spot. For me in the NR360 it's around 45% for the first 18 days and increasing to 65% for hatch. These are the percentages that I have very rarely needed to adjust when closely monitoring weight loss no matter the breeds or age of the hens so I feel very comfortable suggesting those percentages even if you aren't on top of monitoring air cell growth or weight.

The fact that you have healthy development and then lose them, I think this is the most likely culprit. That's not to say I haven't encountered a bizarre genetic issue that caused a high occurrence of late quitters but it was one time, with one flock, out of soooo many hatches.

I hope this helps!

Thank you! If this hatch turns out bad like the others then I will definitely make some corrections.

 

[GunnyBun]

Update: I increased the humidity today, now I have eight starting to hatch! Externally pipped and everything! Thank you @CluckNDoodle, even experienced hatchers forget the simple things sometimes. And humidity was something I forgot to do that last time.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Update: I increased the humidity today, now I have eight starting to hatch! Externally pipped and everything! Thank you @CluckNDoodle, even experienced hatchers forget the simple things sometimes. And humidity was something I forgot to do that last time.

I'm so glad they're hatching well!