Where are we going wrong.

[Loobyloolisa]

Hi there. This is our first time incubating eggs. We had chickens that seemed to be doing well. At day 18 we candled and saw vessels, movement in 5/10. The other 5 we did the water test just to make sure but nothing. However after we reached day 25 we started to get concerned. Upon inspection the chicks seemed to be at the same stage as day 18 but this time no movement. Water test concluded that they had died. I was gutted. We looked into it and think it's possible that because my dad's chickens are old and the eggs had been stored might be the problem. However we also have ducks. These were freshly collected, and the ducks in their prime. Again all going great, vessels, movement at day 25. Now we're at day 32 and nothing. I have 2/5 with movement. The others are differences in size, one takes up the whole egg and the others seem smaller in comparison but non have movement or vessels. The other 2 with movement still have vessels and look a little small. I'm not holding up much hope but we used the same incubator all the way through. Were not 100% sure with the temp and humidity are right so we are getting a external gauge. Can someone please shed and light on this, am I doing something wrong with the hatching as this seems to be when it all goes wrong. Thanks for reading.

 

[Naser]

Welcome to BYC
It seems humidity is so high so the chicks drowned in the eggs.
Day 32 is so late for chicken eggs, I would remove them.
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[Sgt_P]

Temperature and humidity are key. Also, the eggs need to be turned.

There are great threads in the sticky section at the top of this forum area. And there are articles you can read as well (button at the top of the page).

If the temperature is too low (or too high) there will be development issues. If the humidity is too high (or low) it can effect the growth of the membranes and/or the chick/duckling, leading to hatching issues.

 

[Loobyloolisa]

Temperature and humidity are key. Also, the eggs need to be turned.

There are great threads in the sticky section at the top of this forum area. And there are articles you can read as well (button at the top of the page).

If the temperature is too low (or too high) there will be development issues. If the humidity is too high (or low) it can effect the growth of the membranes and/or the chick/duckling, leading to hatching issues.

Yeah we're not sure how accurate these are with the incubator, that's why we've ordered and external gauge to try and get a better reading.

 

[Loobyloolisa]

Welcome to BYC
It seems humidity is so high so the chicks drowned in the eggs.
Day 32 is so late for chicken eggs, I would remove them.
.
.

These are the duck eggs, the chickens went out at day 25. I've seen posts where some chickens have hatched at day 25 and ducks at day 33. I'm giving them until this time just to make sure. It's definitely been a learning experience and I've still got a lot to learn.

 

[FortCluck]

I do believe that the humidity was most likely too high causing the chicks to drown in the egg.

I would do egg-topsies to see if there are fully formed chicks in the shells.

My first incubation I had 9 chicks that drowned because of the humidity spiking. Fast forward a year and now my hatch rates are 90%

It takes a few times before you really get the hang of it. I would learn your incubator and find a sweet spot with the humidity. What everyone else has their humidity at may not work for you so just find what humidity is best for your area. Location has a lot to do with how you should run the humidity in your incubator.

 

[Loobyloolisa]

I do believe that the humidity was most likely too high causing the chicks to drown in the egg.

I would do egg-topsies to see if there are fully formed chicks in the shells.

My first incubation I had 9 chicks that drowned because of the humidity spiking. Fast forward a year and now my hatch rates are 90%

It takes a few times before you really get the hang of it. I would learn your incubator and find a sweet spot with the humidity. What everyone else has their humidity at may not work for you so just find what humidity is best for your area. Location has a lot to do with how you should run the humidity in your incubator.

Yeah we did have problems with spiked humidity. It's just so disheartening when you lose them.

 

[FortCluck]

Yeah we did have problems with spiked humidity. It's just so disheartening when you lose them.

My first hatch I honestly didn't want to hatch again, but now I have hatched over 100+ chicks just the last month.

The upside is you have the ability to get eggs from your backyard. A lot of people have to buy shipped eggs which are even harder to hatch because you can't control how the package is handled. I get eggs from my backyard too and I absolutely love having that ability!

I'm sorry your first hatch was like this but chalk it up as a learning experience. We all start somewhere

 

[Loobyloolisa]

That's how I'm feeling now. Yesterday I was ready to sell on the equipment and quit but my partner talked me round. Thank you

 

[Egghead_Jr]

You really shouldn't see blood vessels day 18. They are practically full by that age. I suspect the temp was far too low resulting in delayed development.

Never use the temp/hygrometer unit that is incorporated into the incubator until you calibrate it with another device. I use oral thermometer because that is the most accurate device available for cheap. Incubators have vent holes in top, put the thermometer in that. The heating element turns on and off resulting in a high and low temp. Your aim is the average of that to be 99.5 F if incubator has turbo fan. If a still air then your aim in 101.5 to 102 F through the vent hole. An oral thermometer is used to calibrate the incubator temp read out.

Humidity is calibrated with a salt test. Whatever small dual device you purchased can be calibrated then in turn you'd have a working calibration for your incubator reading.

Try incubating at 30-35% RH then up it to 70+ RH last few days for hatch. Keep in mind humidity is relative to surface area of water not volume. If filling the smallest trough in incubator with water results in too much humidity then use a cup of right diameter that fits in incubator that results in 30-35%.

Salt test;

Materials- zip lock bag *quart size works, juice/milk or whatever cap filled with salt and small amount of water to saturate it, hygrometer.

Saturate the salt in cap, wet sand consistency. Put cap and hygrometer in ziplock bag, seal it up with little pillow of air inside and place on the counter overnight. A salt environment is 75% RH exactly at room temp. The difference between your hygrometer and 75 is the calibration #.

example- your reading is 83.
75-83= -8 You'd always subtract 8 from whatever your hygrometer reads for true Relative Humidity.