Tricky incubation/incubator

[Ganesh-Saahd]

Hello guys!

I have a couple of questions.

My present hatch is nearing the end. I have a terrible hatch rate, but the eggs were shipped and in a terrible state to start with (big saddle air cell, some with no air cell at all. Many bloodring after 7 days. I cracked them open and it was all scramble egg in there, you see the picture).

Now, a couple of other factors could have impact.

I was monitoring temp and humidity closely. My hygrometer/thermometer was calibrated prior to the hatch and gave the same temp than my inkbird that I use as a temp probe at the eggs height. I also calibrated the hygro with the salt test. Everything was in order.

After setting the eggs, I noticed that the sides of my incubator (Hova-bator Genesis 1588) was really cooler than the center (37.2 vs 37.5). It was fine prior putting the eggs in Was this normal? It's not a still air incubator. There's a fan in there.

Also, after 18 days, I removed the egg turner and could observed that the temp dropped dramatically, around 36.9. Both thermometers were at the same temp then. I had to crank the incubator at 37.9 in order to read 37.5. A towel wrapped around was also needed.

Is this normal that the bottom of the incubator is cooler and needs more heat to stabilize at 37.5?

My eggs were fine up to day 18 at candling. At day 21, I had several chicks stucked into the shell, probably due to too high humidity at lockdown (around 80% instead of 65%).

Also, it was a tricky incubation, with all the saddle air cells. I always do a dry hatch until day 18. It was around 25% this time. Didn't think about it, but maybe 40% would have been better with the air pockets condition (avoid losing too much humidity with air cell so big and intern membrane not rightly attached).

I hatched half upright, for the ones with a really mangled air cell.

Out of 21 eggs, I have so far 5 chicks at day 22, 2 that I helped out of a very sticky shell. Maybe 4 still viable after floating test.

What do you think about the incubator?
The outcome?

I'm going in person in 2 weeks to fetch some proper eggs the won't be roughly handle by any shippers/postman. I would like to have a better result and improve my variable to raise my viability and hatching ratio.

Thanks for coming to me TED talk

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

I also use a couple of 1588s and find them to generally be pretty good for the price point. What you described about hot and cool spots and temperature fluctuations doesn't seem unusual to me - I rotate the eggs around to try to counteract this issue, and monitor temperature closely so I can adjust it as needed.

I've hatched multiple batches of shipped eggs over the past year, and the hatches have, overall, been very poor. As a very experienced incubator of several species of fowl, I've concluded that this is primarily due to the severe damage the eggs sustained during shipping, not technique or equipment failures. There's only so much that can be done for an egg that's repeatedly been roughly shaken, dropped, and subjected to pressure and temperature changes.

If you also hatch in the 1588, you may have noticed that there's a warning sticker on there that says not to exceed 65% humidity. I've noticed the unit can have issues with holding temperatures if the humidity exceeds this threshold. Because of this, I hatch eggs in a separate Hova-Bator (different model) where I can raise the humidity as much as I feel is needed.

While it may not seem like it, I think your hatch was actually pretty good, considering the state of the shipped eggs. Congratulations on your chicks and best of luck with your next hatch!

 

[abenardini]

Hello guys!

I have a couple of questions.

My present hatch is nearing the end. I have a terrible hatch rate, but the eggs were shipped and in a terrible state to start with (big saddle air cell, some with no air cell at all. Many bloodring after 7 days. I cracked them open and it was all scramble egg in there, you see the picture).

Now, a couple of other factors could have impact.

I was monitoring temp and humidity closely. My hygrometer/thermometer was calibrated prior to the hatch and gave the same temp than my inkbird that I use as a temp probe at the eggs height. I also calibrated the hygro with the salt test. Everything was in order.

After setting the eggs, I noticed that the sides of my incubator (Hova-bator Genesis 1588) was really cooler than the center (37.2 vs 37.5). It was fine prior putting the eggs in Was this normal? It's not a still air incubator. There's a fan in there.

Also, after 18 days, I removed the egg turner and could observed that the temp dropped dramatically, around 36.9. Both thermometers were at the same temp then. I had to crank the incubator at 37.9 in order to read 37.5. A towel wrapped around was also needed.

Is this normal that the bottom of the incubator is cooler and needs more heat to stabilize at 37.5?

My eggs were fine up to day 18 at candling. At day 21, I had several chicks stucked into the shell, probably due to too high humidity at lockdown (around 80% instead of 65%).

Also, it was a tricky incubation, with all the saddle air cells. I always do a dry hatch until day 18. It was around 25% this time. Didn't think about it, but maybe 40% would have been better with the air pockets condition (avoid losing too much humidity with air cell so big and intern membrane not rightly attached).

I hatched half upright, for the ones with a really mangled air cell.

Out of 21 eggs, I have so far 5 chicks at day 22, 2 that I helped out of a very sticky shell. Maybe 4 still viable after floating test.

What do you think about the incubator?
The outcome?

I'm going in person in 2 weeks to fetch some proper eggs the won't be roughly handle by any shippers/postman. I would like to have a better result and improve my variable to raise my viability and hatching ratio.

Thanks for coming to me TED talk

I’ve actually got a batch in a genesis (have had a really good rate 90% with my own eggs previously, with shipped eggs at the moment). I had 18 eggs I bought mail order and am down to 12 - I suspect what’s left there are 10 still viable, which puts me at a 55% rate at the moment. The problem is we don’t know what the delivery people did with our packages prior to delivery. I have multiple temperature and hygrometers inside of the incubator. One thing that’s always helped me is to wrap additional layers around the styrofoam (beach towels and similar). Haven’t had an issue with temperature regulation yet. I always do the old school way of maintaining humidity between 30-50% until lock down and up it slightly at that time. Lots of variables when hatching so it’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause of challenge.