temperature of incubator

[GrammyJ]

We seem to be having a lot of trouble getting chicks to hatch. When we candle them can see the veins and the heart beating and they move, but then they never hatch. They die in the shell. Next to last batch, 2 pipped but they died before they could unzip. One was alive for a bit but I had helped with the zipping. It got out but died right outside the shell. I think my son has the temp up too high. How hot do you suggest it should be? What is the hottest to the coolest to keep the heat at a regular temp? One lived out of last batch and I really wanted her. Roo was a Spanish Barque. She was 3 days old but I found her dead this morning in the nursery box. Our % of living and hatching is way down. We keep plenty of moisture in the incubator too. Any help would sure be a blessing. We were told by one lady that this is the wrong time of the year to try and hatch out our eggs. We had 2 green eggs and when we candled them could see the heart beating and they were moving but then they never hatched. Waited tho to see if they were later than what I had counted the days for but now one is oozing which means it is now rotten and dead. The eggs were from a friend who has health certificates for all her chickens and the Spanish Barque is a registered roo and I guess very rare. We were looking forward to getting some good babies from him and his flock. No such luck. I just think heat is too high. Son has it set at 100. Think we are frying the eggs in the shell.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It sounds like your attempting to hatch shipped eggs. If so you must know that they are extremely finicky and you could be living in what I call a Postal Dead Zone. I've been there before and it's no fun. Hatch rates were awful, best was 3 of 18, and was getting over 90% on my own eggs. Moved and hatch rates went over 70% on shipped eggs. In general people count themselves lucky to get 50% hatch on shipped but if your in a Postal Dead Zone you wont even come close to that.

Heat is the most important thing in hatching. That said, you'd know if the temp was way off by when they start to pip and zip. Off by 1-1.5 F too high and they'd be piping day 19, That much too cold and they'd be delayed a day or two. If our chicks were piping day 20 then your temp was fine. I'd sooner expect too high humidity during incubation. If the egg does not release enough water weight the air cell isn't large enough for the chick to breath when internally piped. They essentially drown when changing position getting ready to pip the shell. I run 30% RH during incubation then up it to 70-75% last few days for hatch. You can monitor the air cell growth when candling. If it's not getting large enough run dry until day 18 so the egg can lose enough moisture prior to hatch time. Lastly is turning. If your manaually turning the eggs think of investing in an auto turner. First few years of incubating we manually turned and had the enthusiasm to keep up with it. Over the years the hatch rates started to suffer in conjunction with lack of exuberance to turn the eggs....purchased an auto turner and back over 90% hatch rate.

 

[GrammyJ]

No on the eggs being shipped. They are either ours or lady down the street who has the most beautiful chickens.But thanks for your info..