What am I doing wrong?

[Kddurnell]

Please forgive my questions. Very new and not having any luck using an incubator. Started with a still air incubator, that didn't work. Moved onto an incubator with a fan, added an egg turner, kept the temperature right around 100 degrees and added water. The eggs lived until a few days before their hatch date and died. SO disappointed. What the heck am I not doing to get these eggs to hatch? Thanks!

 

[GitaBooks]

Welcome to BYC!

I'm sorry to hear about your eggs. Incubating is difficult, and mortality rate is fairly high. Here are some things that could help.

Make sure you stop turning the eggs 3 days before the hatch date
Make sure to raise the humidity to around 65% during the 3 days prior to hatching
Make sure that you have eggs that are not too old, were gently handled, and came from good breeder roosters and hens without inbreeding or genetic faults

Make sure your incubator is clean and without bacteria
Make sure that the temp doesn't fluctuate between night and day
Try not to open the incubator too many times


I hope this helps.
Best of luck!

 

[Kddurnell]

Thank you

 

[gpop1]

sounds like the humidity was to high while incubating. There's a air pocket in the egg that gets bigger during incubation. The chick breaks into the air pocket before piping the shell if the humidity has been to high then theres no air cell and the chick drowns before piping.
If possible you need to candle the eggs (flash light will work on light colored eggs). Theres a chart that shows how big the air cell should be for each week of incubation.
no matter what size the air cell is during the last 3 days humidity needs to be 65 to 70% so the membrane doesn't dry out on the chicks when after they pip and before they zip.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

sounds like the humidity was to high while incubating. There's a air pocket in the egg that gets bigger during incubation. The chick breaks into the air pocket before piping the shell if the humidity has been to high then theres no air cell and the chick drowns before piping.
If possible you need to candle the eggs (flash light will work on light colored eggs). Theres a chart that shows how big the air cell should be for each week of incubation.
no matter what size the air cell is during the last 3 days humidity needs to be 65 to 70% so the membrane doesn't dry out on the chicks when after they pip and before they zip.

xs 2 I would say humidity, especially if you are not monitoring it.

One of the most important things is having an acccurate thermometer/hygrometer. Never trust any thermometer that hasn't been checked, including the ones with the bators. Often they are wrong and can compromise a hatch. I use at least two thermometers in the bator to check against each other throughout the hatch (it also helps to pinpoint hot/cold spots.)

The second big thing is humidity. Humidity can make you or break you and many people start to high. A lot of people have better luck with a low humidity incubation method, especially in the styrofoam bators. I personally have better hatches at 30-35% humidity. But there are a lot of factors that will affect what humidity works for you and different percentages work for different people in different climates. (And elevations. Higher elevations do need a slightly higher humidity and it is harder to hatchin high elevations.) The best way to find what humidity works best for you is by monitoring the air cells. I use this method http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity and if you have accurate gages and a fairly steady temp (99.5F for forced air) I swear by it. It allows you to monitor and figure out a good range of humidity for you and the eggs.

I hope you have much better luck with your future hatches.

 

[Kddurnell]

Thank you for all the info!