Very bad hatching rate!

[dsmoosecountry]

Quote:
what is your altitude? I am at 6800 ft here in NM and having chatted with one of the top silkie breeders in the world, who happens to live not far from me, he assured me that at this altitude it's not always easy to come out with a good hatch. There are times when getting anything to hatch is a real victory.
I have had those super glue membranes that you described. People describe the chicks as being "shrink wrapped", which seems like an accurate observation. At this point it is my personal opinion that the chicks hatched too dry. I had a friend suggest placing a moist tea towel on the eggs during lockdown. So, to be clear. Right now I am doing eggs at 30-35% humidity for the first 18 and then probably I will do 65-70% with moist tea towels for hatch. I am also pumping extra air into the bator with a little fish tank air-pump.

You know, I never took into account the fact that I live at 8,075 feet... hmmm.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
what is your altitude? I am at 6800 ft here in NM and having chatted with one of the top silkie breeders in the world, who happens to live not far from me, he assured me that at this altitude it's not always easy to come out with a good hatch. There are times when getting anything to hatch is a real victory.
I have had those super glue membranes that you described. People describe the chicks as being "shrink wrapped", which seems like an accurate observation. At this point it is my personal opinion that the chicks hatched too dry. I had a friend suggest placing a moist tea towel on the eggs during lockdown. So, to be clear. Right now I am doing eggs at 30-35% humidity for the first 18 and then probably I will do 65-70% with moist tea towels for hatch. I am also pumping extra air into the bator with a little fish tank air-pump.

You know, I never took into account the fact that I live at 8,075 feet... hmmm.

At high altitude, I think you're going to need a higher humidity during the setting phase in order to retard the weight loss in the eggs. This is why I weigh mine every few days...that tells me how they're really doing.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Quote:
what is your altitude? I am at 6800 ft here in NM and having chatted with one of the top silkie breeders in the world, who happens to live not far from me, he assured me that at this altitude it's not always easy to come out with a good hatch. There are times when getting anything to hatch is a real victory.
I have had those super glue membranes that you described. People describe the chicks as being "shrink wrapped", which seems like an accurate observation. At this point it is my personal opinion that the chicks hatched too dry. I had a friend suggest placing a moist tea towel on the eggs during lockdown. So, to be clear. Right now I am doing eggs at 30-35% humidity for the first 18 and then probably I will do 65-70% with moist tea towels for hatch. I am also pumping extra air into the bator with a little fish tank air-pump.

You know, I never took into account the fact that I live at 8,075 feet... hmmm.

Do not know if my rambling will help. I am in the high desert with very low humidity - approx 4900 feet. I incubate in a LG with a fan, the first 18 days I keep the humidity at about 35% with only one vent plugged (over the fan) - last three I pull the plug over the fan and up (or try) my humidity to about 50%. I really battle getting the humidity up - I finally have settled on using 2 cottage cheese lids with a folded paper towel or two in them (I have tried sponges and wash clothes). I do have to add water daily during lockdown - I just use hotwater and my humidity does not take a dramatic plunge. I am just finishing up with a fertility test - so far 8 out 12 of my flock eggs have hatched (I never have good luck with shipped eggs - I am happy to get two hatched from a shipped clutch).

Here they are.....gathered around the lid:

 

[dsmoosecountry]

I calibrated my hydrometer using the salt method and it is reading 5% low. So now I'm confused. My egg autopsies revealed that none of the developed chicks broke the airsack, which sort of rules out the "drowning" idea. Also, the membranes seemed to be rubbery and the chick seemed to be sealed in pretty tight. However, when my hydrometer read 63% it was actually 68% which should be high enough.

Anyone else hatching around 8,000 feet above sea level?

 

[GotChicken?]

Your humidity may be a little too high during incubation. I kept mine at 45, had one hatch fine, but the other had the membrane dry out. I had to spritz it periodically through the hatch, and jacked the humidity to 80% (was at 70%), to soften the membrane and help it break out of the shell. If you do this, make sure they can stick their beak out of the pip so they don't drown. That chic also turned out to be bigger than the sibling that hatched earlier. I've heard and read that too high of humidity during incubation can also make the chicks grow too big to manuever in their shells to pip and zip correctly. I have an new batch in the 'bator and I'm keeping the humidity around 40% during incubation to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Given your "xtreme" altitude, I recommend having a look at this Hoss of a thread...https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=113681&p=1

 

[dsmoosecountry]

Strange thing, this morning I checked my hydrometer calibration. After 15 hours in the salt method it read 70%. I came home for lunch today and after 20 hours it's reading 66%.

Hmmm.

 

[Chic Chick]

I've been so ticked off and disappointed since my 2nd attempt at hatching in my new homemade incubator failed. I thought I was the only one having a bad time with hatching this year.

First off, when it was -40 I had a silkie hatch 3 chicks over 3 days with 2 more pipping. I took the first 3 away from the hen and left her sitting, and those last 2 died after hatching....

Now I built a huge incubator that can hold 12 doz eggs because the 42 egg hovabator wasn't big enough last year. I've had 2 spikes in temperatures for unknown reasons which killed all the chicks in the first try. I have good cool air intake and good vent holes for it to escape so the air is moving all the time. Then the second batch I moved into a hatcher with about 65% humidity and it seems they all drowned because some had even pipped before they died.

And then I had put more eggs in the bator and forgot to write down the dates

so now I think I'll have some chicks hatch this coming week. There weren't any spikes this last time until this morning when it was at 40C (104F) I just candled and discarded half of them, keeping 12 that I can see are alive.

I'm using all my own eggs and I am also having problems with fertility. I'm finding a lot of clears and some blood rings and then even some that just stop developing for no apparent reason.
OMG I've got chick orders to fill starting March 30!!