Why are my chicks dying???

[luvmydux]

I am incubating bantams mostly but some regular sized chickens as well. I am getting extremely poor hatch rates and I am really sad about it. They are all alive and well until I put them in the "hatching" incubator. Then I am losing more than half! What am I doing wrong? I am so sick of opening eggs with fully formed and ready to hatch chicks and finding them dead! I have the humidity as high as I can get, the temp is about 100 and I have been really good to not open it. It seems like the more I try to do it "by the book", the worse luck I have. Any insight would be great. Maybe there is better ways of increasing humidity (other than filling the areas with water)?

 

[smchickfarm]

I am so sorry you are having bad hatches....what is your humidity when they are in the "hatching" incubator??

 

[hokankai]

Yeah how high is it? Could they be drowning because it's too high? Or are they sticky inside like it's too low?

 

[snaffle]

Someone on one of the poultry boards told me that my humidity in the hatching incubator was not high enough. I had it at 21 and hatched out 7 chicks out of 10 eggs.

I raised the humidity very high and hatched 6 and lost 6. 5 of those 6 dead ones had full chicks.

I now have 6 eggs in the hatcher and the humidity is 50%

This gets pretty darn frustrating. It was much simpler in the 70's and 80's when I had a round metal incubator and misted the eggs twice a day. I do not remember having bad hatches back then.

 

[luvmydux]

I don't have a guage (sp?) in there to tell what the humidity it but I filled all the chambers with water and locked down. I am guessing I have low humidity because when I broke open the eggs, the membrane seemed a little dry. But I don't know, maybe that's cuz they were dead?! But then one of the last chicks to hatch had a half egg shell cemented to his head (that was fun trying to get off! He's fine now.) It is frustrating because how the heck else am I going to get more humidity? I am hatching out batches at least once a week and I can't stand the thought of losing many more! In the ones that I am hoping will hatch now I have all the chambers full, a sponge in there full of water and a bowl with water in it. Locked down. Fingers crossed. There are 7 eggs, one has 2 small pieces of shell broke off (from today) and is alive. Ugh, I feel like a murderer.

 

[Lacrystol]

You really need to get a gauge to check it, I does sound to low but I'm afriad if you raise it without knowing exactly where it is your gonna do more damage. Please get a gauge, you can get something at Walmart really need to know what the humidity is before you start you next batch and lose more..

 

[smchickfarm]

You really need to get a gauge to check it, I does sound to low but I'm afriad if you raise it without knowing exactly where it is your gonna do more damage. Please get a gauge, you can get something at Walmart really need to know what the humidity is before you start you next batch and lose more..

2X, yes, it is important to have a gauge!!!!!

 

[Arielle]

Often the problems experienced in lockdown were actually created earlier in the incubation period.

Start with quality eggs from well fed hens.

Humidity in the incubator; ventilation; temperature are ALL important during the first 18 days. DO you monitor the air cells to see if they are developing in a timely manner. THe moisture loss of an egg is critical. Too much creates problems and too little creates problems. Either candle or weigh the eggs. These are the 2 methods.

I candle at days 7 14 and 18 so I can compare to the diagrams. I alter the moisture levels as needed; usually I dry hatch. THe room is abut 50% RH and inside the incubator is 20-30%. The RH can fluctuate with the change in the room humidity ( ventilation will pull in the air) and how many eggs are in the incubator. I adjust moisture as necessary to meet the diagrams at 7, 14 and day 18. If the cells are too big, add moisture to the inside of the incubator; if the cells are too small, remove water from a well or cover most of the well to decrease the moisture going into the air.

Here is one source, there are many out there , just use the title of the diagram to do a search.
Diagrams of air cells, duck and chicken:

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html


You had a method that worked with that incubator years ago; this is a new incubator with it's own unique ways. Keep at it and you will learn how to make this one hatch more chicks than you know what to do with!!