Whole hatching death

[linuxman]

Our roos are about 1.5 years old. We also just had 3 more come of age, and now we have a roon ratio of 5:15.

 

[HEChicken]

I let them stay in the incubator for 4 1/2 weeks. I just took them our and cracked them (carefully), and none of them had any visible embryo.

I use multiple thermometers, and as for the hygrometer, I have been unable to find one with good ratings that is cheap enough to make it worth while to buy it for the few hatching's I do a year.

As others have said, no development means they probably were not fertile, so temp/humidity are moot.

I tried digital therm/hygros but could not find one that was accurate. I finally wound up with a $1 thermometer from Wally World. It is the kind with the glass tube and the red line indicating temp. What I did was go to the store and look at those thermometers. They had about 20 of them. One by one I took them off the rack and looked at the temp. Three-quarters of them read 75 so from that I deduced that Walmart had their thermostat set to 75, and any thermometer that did not read that temperature was not reading accurately. I then paid my whole $1, took the thermometer home, and set it on my own house thermostat. When I looked at it a few hours later, it read the same as my house thermostat. So I figured it was accurate and it is now the thermometer that I use for my hatches (which have been great since I started using just this thermometer).

For hygrometer, I went to Petco and paid about $6 for an analog hygrometer, in the aquarium section. A hygrometer is easier to calibrate because you can use the salt test. Take a ziploc bag and in it place a cup that contains 1/2 cup salt and 1/4 water mixed into a mushy paste. Set the hygrometer in the ziploc bag (but not in the cup), zip up the bag, and check it 24 hours later. (Some people recommend 12 hours but I've had better results waiting a full 24). The hygrometer should read 75% at this point. If it does, your hygrometer is calibrated and reading accurately. If it reads less than 75, take the amount that it reads (for example 70), and now you know that it reads 5% low, so you can deduct 5% from any reading you get while incubating. Humidity does not have to be quite as precise as temperature so if it reads 35%, and you know that it reads a little low, you know your humidity is in the ball park.

Thanks all. No, we are just starting to get into the whole sustainability chicken farming. We are working to get a good candler. Thanks all for the great advice! I will look into all of your wonderful comments.

A good candler is an LED flashlight. You want one that emits a fairly high beam but they are super cheap these days. I think I paid $4 for one at OfficeMax. Go into a completely dark room (a room without windows preferably) so you are using only the flashlight as your light source. Make an "O" with your thumb and forefinger. Place the egg into the "O", and place the flashlight below and touching the egg. In a completely dark room, you should now be able to see into your egg. I can even see into green and marans eggs using this method. There is a great thread here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...g-candling-pics-progression-though-incubation
that shows the progression of the eggs from day one through to hatching. That thread is a great resource when you are new to hatching to help you figure out what it is you are seeing when you candle.

 

[linuxman]

Thanks. I will remember the bit about how to candle. Actually, we did this a a kind of project. We weren't going to do this second round, but most of the first batch of 19 died from a heat fluctuation in the brooder. I was just wondering why the whole second incubation died.

Thanks for all the wonderful support from all who chimed in on this!