Slow hatching

[Ridgebilly Gal]

My first post here. I tried to research previous posts but didn't find what I needed so here goes. I hatched my own eggs for many years with great success. We retired, sold our flock, and moved closer to our son. Now that we are settled in to our new homestead, I dug out all the equipment and I'm ready to start a new flock. I have my old incubator, a large QFC sportsman that's probably 20 years old but it's never let me down. Just to be sure, I ran it and checked it against several thermometers until I found two that agreed. It still works just like it always did so I bought a dozen blue laced red Wyandottes in person. I had to drive about 3 hours to get them home but tried to take great care with them. I set them on the 20th and decided to do a dry hatch since this is the rainy season and the room where the incubator is was about 70% humidity. I used to live in very dry texas so I always used the pan with constant water to keep the humidity up so this was the only difference from how I used to hatch. the humidity in it ran about 45 to 50 % without adding water I candled them at day 10 and right before lockdown. 3 were bad so I threw them out but all the others seems strong and doing well. they should have hatched sunday but did not start hatching until today, day 22. Why would they be a day late? so far only 3 have hatched but I have several others pipping. I upped the humidity with water to around 60 %. so what am I doing wrong, any thoughts? thanks.

 

[Debbie292d]

For lockdown, I try do between 65 and 70%. I doubt 60% would slow them down though, but still, you could try jacking it up a bit.

Otherwise, let's hope the rest are on the way!

Welcome to BYC!

 

[junior67]

My first post here. I tried to research previous posts but didn't find what I needed so here goes. I hatched my own eggs for many years with great success. We retired, sold our flock, and moved closer to our son. Now that we are settled in to our new homestead, I dug out all the equipment and I'm ready to start a new flock. I have my old incubator, a large QFC sportsman that's probably 20 years old but it's never let me down. Just to be sure, I ran it and checked it against several thermometers until I found two that agreed. It still works just like it always did so I bought a dozen blue laced red Wyandottes in person. I had to drive about 3 hours to get them home but tried to take great care with them. I set them on the 20th and decided to do a dry hatch since this is the rainy season and the room where the incubator is was about 70% humidity. I used to live in very dry texas so I always used the pan with constant water to keep the humidity up so this was the only difference from how I used to hatch. the humidity in it ran about 45 to 50 % without adding water I candled them at day 10 and right before lockdown. 3 were bad so I threw them out but all the others seems strong and doing well. they should have hatched sunday but did not start hatching until today, day 22. Why would they be a day late? so far only 3 have hatched but I have several others pipping. I upped the humidity with water to around 60 %. so what am I doing wrong, any thoughts? thanks.

you aren't doing anything wrong. Do you have a thermometer in their to be sure that the temp is exactly where it should be and not just what the incubator is reading? if I had to guess I would say temp is slightly low but that is fine. the 21 days is more of an estimate but they can come a day or so early or a day or so later. So all is good. can't wait to hear how many you get.

 

[Ridgebilly Gal]

Thank you heather. I got two more last night and all 5 are doing great. I've got 5 more eggs left but I'm not expecting anything. I am using two thermometers beside what the incubator says and it is staying right at 100. I suspect the eggs were old.

 

[junior67]

Thank you heather. I got two more last night and all 5 are doing great. I've got 5 more eggs left but I'm not expecting anything. I am using two thermometers beside what the incubator says and it is staying right at 100. I suspect the eggs were old.

glad you have 5 and they are doing great! would love to see some cute baby pics! I haven't been able to incubate this year yet so missing out on cute fluffy babies!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll link a couple of trouble shooting guides that might help you determine what went wrong. I open unhatched eggs and try to figure out when they quit.

Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

They can hatch a day or two early or late for various reasons. Heredity, humidity, how and how long they were stored before incubation started, and just differences in the eggs. One huge factor is average incubation temperature. If it is a bit high they can be early, a bit low they can be late. Have you been able to calibrate your thermometers against one that you know is correct? A medical thermometer is calibrated to be correct in the incubation range of temperatures. Many incubator presets and thermometers you buy over the counter are not calibrated. That would be my first thought on why they were late but it may not be the real reason.

Thanks for giving the start date. You are counting the days correctly. That's often a problem on this forum.

As you can see from those troubleshooting guides different things can cause them to not hatch. I'm not going to try to guess from across the internet. You are looking at them and know what you did.

One time I transported 30 eggs and only had 10 hatch, worse than your hatch. I had mine sitting on the floorboard of the car so they were badly shaken. That was purely my fault. I should have known better and do now.