Those with sportsman incubators HELP!!

[matthew1985]

i have a sports man 1502 and it holds temps like a champ!! but for some reason i dont kno why but some off my eggs will start do devlop then die get the blood ring my humidity is 49-52% for the firs 18 idk what im doin wrong or is this normal this happend to 2 out of 12 of my eggs and help would be great o and i have the plug in to keep the humidity to that point but one whole in back an one on side is still open so it should be getting good air right? if i remove plug it will go to like 40-44 let me kno what yall think

 

[Paganbird]

It could be a couple things. My first question would be the quality of the eggs.
Are they porous?
Are they clean?
Have they been mishandled?
How old are they?
Shipped?
It probably doesn't have anything to do with the incubator... unless it isn't properly cleaned.

 

[matthew1985]

the eggs are local and clean...um the incubator is clean i only used it one year and whiped it all down with just water is there something els i should be doin i mean theres like 40 eggs in there rite now i jus dident kno why the two started then stoped is that normal?>

 

[saladin]

It is completely normal for some of the chicks to develop and not hatch or pip and die. That is the way it happens for the hen; why should you expect anything different? saladin

 

[matthew1985]

so how do i need to clean tha bator becouse there were blood rings?

 

[duckluck]

I wash out the 1202 here with pretty strong bleach water, at least a capful to a few gallons, then let it air or, preferably, sun dry. The bleach can take a day to dissipate, be sure you wipe out with regular water afterwards. I even unscrewed the back off it before, and used a toilet brush to get around the turning racks.

I have only had as many as 16 eggs in there at a time; I keep the bottom center vent cracked throughout the incubation and use the top center one to control my humidity. With more eggs, they may or not need more air, though the owner of this bator only ever said she cracked that bottom vent, and she hatched *thousands* of eggs with the thing over 15 years. I open the vents full out once all chicks are hatched so they can dry.

 

[saladin]

My Sportsman is very old (30-40?): made totally out of wood. I set and hatch continuously from Thanksgiving until the end of May. Mine has 4 drawers; the drawers are moved down until it is time to hatch when they are at the bottom. Each drawer is washed after the hatch, but the incubator itself is not washed throughly until hatching season is through. I do add bleach to the water pan each time I set new eggs at the rate of 1-2 ozs. per gallon. This does no harm to the eggs that are already set or to the chicks that are hatching. My hatch rate runs around 85-90% of fertilized eggs. saladin