What are your percentages of hatch with incubators?

[Trisseh]

A lot of factors are going to affect your hatch rates, as evidenced by everyone’s responses!
I incubate and hatch in the little janoel 12 incubators. Last season I had primarily shipped eggs, a few of my own duck eggs, and a small number of local pick up eggs. I’ve had good and bad luck with the shipped eggs, as well as the local eggs, but very good success with my homegrown eggs. I only hatch small numbers at a time though, so my results often seem much more severe than they are. When I tallied allllll of the eggs that I hatched last year, I wound up with around a 75% hatch rate overall. That’s not bad, for having had a lot of really roughly shipped eggs.
It’s also important to know your incubator well. When I first started using mine I cooked a bunch and chilled others. Now that I have a good handle on how this incubator performs, I have no issue keeping everything steady, and had a 100% hatch rate on my last batch of homegrown eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When people give hatch rates, are you only counting fertile eggs?
Or yokers too?

If counting yokers, I’ve had as low as 0% hatch rate a couple times.
Only counting fertile eggs I’ve had better success. At least 85% I’d say. Possibly higher. I do help my hatches though. So losses are mostly due to early quitters.
I have a hova-bator 1588.

When I give hatch rates, I count every egg that goes into the incubator. Since they are all my eggs now, I feel even infertile eggs reflect back on me as do early quitters.

 

[FloorCandy]

I hatch quail.
I use the nr-360, and the brinsea ovation 56 ex (I think, the one that does everything for you). The brinsea is amazing, because I hatch quail and set so many, I don’t generally candle first, and still I get probably 90+% hatch rate. If I candled and stored the eggs properly it would probably be 99%, but with my own eggs I’m lazy. If I’m collecting them for someone else I store them properly, but for myself, it’s like 5 small bowls of eggs left on the counter haha. The NR 360 is a bit more fussy, especially at lockdown, you need to be vigilant about humidity, but from my first hatch until now, I’ve hatched probably close to 1000 chicks and never had below 74%, and I’ve had 100% several times. I just 3D printed a quail egg sized turner for the nr360 and the first batch are hatching now, 4 so far, out of about 40 that went to lockdown.

 

[Mellowmalt]

I had a really smelly egg, was covered in something so I dipped it in 3% bleach. I'm sure it will be fine as egg shells are theoretically waterproof. Smells nice and fresh now - I would not have felt comfortable putting that in my incubator the way it smelt.

 

[spartacus_63]

Incubating eggs is a process and the incubator of choice is but one link in the chain. There are so many factors that affect the hatch rate; Fertility, age of the flock, environmental conditions, age of the eggs, how long & how they were stored prior to incubation, etc.

Any container that can maintain a decent temperature and allows for the turning of eggs can incubate eggs.

I use a Hova Bator with digital controls & fan. I store my eggs at 50°F small end up prior to incubation and I maintain a 45%-50% RH day 1-18 based on weight loss and 60% +/- during lock down. I weigh & candle my eggs on day 4, 7, 11, 15 & 18 to monitor progress and cull any quiters. I have young birds and I collect eggs multiple times a day. I have hatched 60 chicks and had four lock down failures this year, over to broods. The first batch, all fertile eggs hatched within 26 hrs. The second brood had four lock down failures and took nearly 48 hrs from first hatch to last.

One could buy the best, most expensive incubator on the planet and still have a less than desirable hatch rate. In MHO the criteria on which incubator to use should be based on how many broods to be hatched, capacity and affordability.

 

[ellasflock]

Hi I am also hatching some chicks at the moment and it is day 18 too, although one of my eggs does have a very large diagonal air cell, my suspicions is that it is still alive but didn’t start to develop until about 8 days into the incubation process because I swapped incubators because my temperature was so low in the other incubator and I then I started to candle them and one of my eggs is not nearly as developed as the others so don’t worry! And just wait a week or so to see if it fills the egg up. I have attached a photos of one of their air cells, and then the embryo inside. So I’m guessing your eggs are probably at day 13 or something. Don’t take my word as gospel as I am not an expert!

 

[Talavar]

I hand built mine. First time ever hatching eggs, too. out of 50 chicken eggs in the last month, I've only lost 1.
I think, by chance, I built my incubator perfectly. I just had my first duck hatch 15 minutes ago.
I built the box 18 inches by 36 niches, and 12 inches tall and placed 36x12 inch piece of glass on top for viewing (it was the glass for an old glasstop end-table). I used this temperature controller (in the link below) set to fluctuate between 99-101 degrees. ANd I split a household table fan for air circulation screwed to a divider in the back. Also a hole in the top with a cut lid where I can add water.. I'll post a picture in a moment.
https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-All-Purpose-Temperature-Controller-ITC-1000/dp/B00OXPE8U6/ref=sr_1_56?crid=3I4IN1YMUHWUK&dchild=1&keywords=inkbird&qid=1612518831&sprefix=incbir,aps,176&sr=8-56

 

[Talavar]

Here's the picture https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/510307145036857344/807189645167296542/20210205_045719.jpg
It's nothing to look at, but gets the job done well. It's built out of foam board.
There are two 69 watt utility bulbs in the back. It kicks on for about a minute, then is off for about 5. The tabletop fan I used is set to low, but I turn it on high during hatch time since it causes rapid evaporation which raises humidity quickly (Condensation builds on glass within 5 minutes). Overall it's pretty power friendly too. Noticed only about a 2$ bump in my monthly electric bill.
I turn my eggs roughly twice per day (sometimes three) Keep in mind, this is manual turn. Opening the hatch also simulates a hen going off the eggs for a drink/eat, for a momentary cooldown. My eggs hatch on day 21 everytime.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

80% hatch rate is most common and if I really babysit the temp and humidity then 90%. That's not taking into account infertile. Of all eggs in over 80% hatch.

I have two Hovabator. Both have the thermo wafer which require monitoring in first few days. The metal relaxes after a day or two of expanding and contracting which requires adjusting temp setting. After day three it's steady as a rock. Once you take eggs out of turner to lay flat for hatching temp adjustment is needed again. Hence the second model is now used for hatching only so I can keep putting eggs in incubator constantly and even stagger hatches.

 

[DJC62]

Built my own. I get great hatches every time.