Temperature inside incubator

[Mhassnae]

Greetings everyone,

I would like to apologise in advance for the long post, I know I am giving too many details but I've just lost a poor chick after it suffered for two days (as well as others who died in their shells) & it was so horrible I never want to witness it again. I am thus making sure I am giving as many info as I can. Thank you for your patience.

I would like to know if anyone here can help me with a few questions: We use incubators to hatch chicken eggs, we've done twice so far with very different results. The first time went amazingly well, all the eggs hatched & all the chicks were healthy and are growing up happily ever since. This was during May & the temperatures were mild (I live in Casablanca, Morocco, so the weather is usually warm during that period, but not suffocating).

This second time around, we started the process on July 5th and most of the eggs started hatching on the 24th. However, a lot of the chicks were stuck in their eggs. At first, we didn't intervene because that's what we had been told & had read in various books, etc. But when we saw that 2 chicks died because they remained stuck, we helped a bit.

Out of the 49 eggs that were in the incubator, 9 never hatched and had dead chicks inside (we kept them in as long as we could, then we checked everything today by candling at first then we cracked each egg to see what was wrong), 9 other eggs never developped even though we saw there were embryos inside (when we cracked them open, they were smaller than a pea after more than 20 days in the incubator).

The last issue was that 3 chicks hatched with their umbilical cords & yolk sacs still attached. One was completely dried so I kept it cozy until it detached and it is doing great, the second kept moving and it tore it with its leg, causing a massive bleeding. I managed to stop the bleeding quickly and thankfully, the chick is doing amazing. The last one died about an hour ago, after having many many issues: it popped its yolk sac (found a way to deal with it here so thank you for that), it couldn't stand properly, kept walking backward, wouldn't eat or drink. It screamed and chirped constantly & had a lot of difficulty to stay warm (I kept it separated from the other in the incubator).

The only difference between these two hatches is the temperature: it has been very warm & suffocating ever since we started the second one and I am wondering if this has any effect on the hatching process. Should we stick to the instructions despite the hot weather or should we have lowered it a bit when the chicks started hatching?

I am asking this question because I have read in many posts here & even elsewhere that a lot of the issues we've had this time were due to high temperatures. Since we stuck to the 37.7°C as instructed, I am blaming the weather but I don't know if these reasoning is correct or not.

Thank you for reading this huge post & for any advice you can provide

P.S. We have incubators from the brand River Systems.

 

[Mvan42]

What was the humidity inside the incubator? Do you have more than one thermometer and are they calibrated?

Sounds like humidity might have been a little high, I have had this same thing happen(fully developed chicks not hatched). As for the ones that didn’t develop all the way that happens sometimes and it’s hard to tell what happened there.

Now for the ones with yolk sacs still attached, they hatched early, next time put them back in the shell the best you can and then put it down inside a cup where it can’t move around much. Wait a few hours until it finishes absorbing the yolk.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I'm sorry this hatch was a difficult one! I'm sure there are a number of factors to explain what you've witnessed with your hatch but temperature and humidity are often the culprits even when the thermometer and hygrometer read correctly on the incubators, because of this it is highly recommended to calibrate a secondary thermometer so that you can verify that the temperature showing on your incubator is accurate.

With that said, I've been hatching chicks all year so I've been able to clearly see my hatch rates drop from 80-100% at the beginning of the year down to 60%. I actually started watching weather patterns prior to collecting the eggs to set in the incubators and when the temps were in mid to high 90s (Fahrenheit) my hatch rates were lower and I still managed 80+% hatch rates when the temperatures were in the 80s. This was all prior to even setting an egg in the incubator, so yes, from my experience, the weather can make a huge difference.

Depending on where you're keeping the incubator if the temperature and humidity in the room fluctuate a lot during incubation that can also affect the outcome of your hatch if the incubator wasn't able to compensate.

Assisting too soon can cause chicks to hatch prior to absorbing their yolk sacs, it's unusual for them to hatch with the yolk sac completely exposed without intervention but when it happens it's often due to too high incubation temperatures or a bacterial overload (this can happen from many things as well but it's important to sanitize your incubator between hatches and to wash hands before handling the eggs for candling, etc.)

Anyway, I could go on for a while but I would start with calibrating a secondary thermometer to check your incubator and them consider other issues from there. Sometimes no matter how much we prepare, an egg just quits and there's nothing we could have done to change it. Good luck with future hatches!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I believe the problem is temperature. Any time eggs start hatching on day 19, the temperature has been too high throughout.
I have some very high quality cabinet incubators with precise temperature control. But unless verified with precise thermometers, the ambient temperature can cause the internal temperature to vary. If the weather is cool and I open a window, without changing the controls, the incubator temperature can drop 2 or 3 degrees. In hot weather, I have to adjust or it gets too hot in there.

 

[007Sean]

I tend to agree with what everyone else has said....the chicks being 'stuck' is due to high humidity. High humidity at hatch time act's like a lubricant, the chicks can't turn in the shell, in order to zip. When they begin to zip, if there is to much fluid in the shell they will struggle to move or 'turn' as they are chipping away at the shell. It also makes it more difficult for them to absorb the yolk, muscle contractions are what facilitates absorption of the yolk and everytime the chick moves it can't make any forward progress, it eventually tires its self out and gives up, resulting in a Died In Shell (DIS) chick.
As far as hatching too early, that definitely is due to higher than the recommended temperature for whatever kind of eggs you are hatching. The obverse is true of late hatches, the temperature was too low during incubation.

 

[Mhassnae]

Thank you all for your feedback and advice. I can already see that there were quite a few things we were not doing correctly. Most important of all being not measuring humidity :/

As I said, we're pretty new at this & all we had so far was input from people who (I now realize) aren't that knowledgeable about these things.

We will put all hatching projets on hold for the moment until we're fully equiped. I am taking notes of every advice given!

What was the humidity inside the incubator? Do you have more than one thermometer and are they calibrated?

Sounds like humidity might have been a little high, I have had this same thing happen(fully developed chicks not hatched). As for the ones that didn’t develop all the way that happens sometimes and it’s hard to tell what happened there.

Now for the ones with yolk sacs still attached, they hatched early, next time put them back in the shell the best you can and then put it down inside a cup where it can’t move around much. Wait a few hours until it finishes absorbing the yolk.

We actually never checked the humidity, the machine doesn't show this parameter & we never thought of getting a device to do so And we only had one thermometer which is the one integrated in the machine :/

I'm sorry this hatch was a difficult one! I'm sure there are a number of factors to explain what you've witnessed with your hatch but temperature and humidity are often the culprits even when the thermometer and hygrometer read correctly on the incubators, because of this it is highly recommended to calibrate a secondary thermometer so that you can verify that the temperature showing on your incubator is accurate.

With that said, I've been hatching chicks all year so I've been able to clearly see my hatch rates drop from 80-100% at the beginning of the year down to 60%. I actually started watching weather patterns prior to collecting the eggs to set in the incubators and when the temps were in mid to high 90s (Fahrenheit) my hatch rates were lower and I still managed 80+% hatch rates when the temperatures were in the 80s. This was all prior to even setting an egg in the incubator, so yes, from my experience, the weather can make a huge difference.

Depending on where you're keeping the incubator if the temperature and humidity in the room fluctuate a lot during incubation that can also affect the outcome of your hatch if the incubator wasn't able to compensate.

Assisting too soon can cause chicks to hatch prior to absorbing their yolk sacs, it's unusual for them to hatch with the yolk sac completely exposed without intervention but when it happens it's often due to too high incubation temperatures or a bacterial overload (this can happen from many things as well but it's important to sanitize your incubator between hatches and to wash hands before handling the eggs for candling, etc.)

Anyway, I could go on for a while but I would start with calibrating a secondary thermometer to check your incubator and them consider other issues from there. Sometimes no matter how much we prepare, an egg just quits and there's nothing we could have done to change it. Good luck with future hatches!

A friend had told us to keep the incubator in a bathroom that is rarely used and, while nothing seemed to be wrong the first time, I think the weather + humidity from the room were way too much for the eggs & chicks. Will definitely be putting it elsewhere next time.
The one thing we were always careful about was bacterial overload so we always wore gloves & made sure we weren't creating any opportunities for contamination.

I believe the problem is temperature. Any time eggs start hatching on day 19, the temperature has been too high throughout.
I have some very high quality cabinet incubators with precise temperature control. But unless verified with precise thermometers, the ambient temperature can cause the internal temperature to vary. If the weather is cool and I open a window, without changing the controls, the incubator temperature can drop 2 or 3 degrees. In hot weather, I have to adjust or it gets too hot in there.

That's exactly what I thought. And I think the brand of incubators we have isn't that good so we'll either equip ourselves with more tools or just buy better ones.
Even when I felt the temperature in the room was higher, it kept showing the same temperature. At the same time, I think it was showing its setting not the temperature inside, so our mistake again in not being more thourough

I tend to agree with what everyone else has said....the chicks being 'stuck' is due to high humidity. High humidity at hatch time act's like a lubricant, the chicks can't turn in the shell, in order to zip. When they begin to zip, if there is to much fluid in the shell they will struggle to move or 'turn' as they are chipping away at the shell. It also makes it more difficult for them to absorb the yolk, muscle contractions are what facilitates absorption of the yolk and everytime the chick moves it can't make any forward progress, it eventually tires its self out and gives up, resulting in a Died In Shell (DIS) chick.
As far as hatching too early, that definitely is due to higher than the recommended temperature for whatever kind of eggs you are hatching. The obverse is true of late hatches, the temperature was too low during incubation.

Thank you for the explanation, now I understand even better. My father followed the instructions for the machine & what some of his friends told him & was worried that any change in the temperature settings would be fatal for the chicks. We thus kept the temperature constant and I think it just got too much, because as soon as he dropped to 3/4 degrees less as instructed, it all went crazy and all eggs hatched too quickly.

Thank you all again for all the kind advice, it really helps.