Why are my chicks having trouble at hatch

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

I’m just wondering if I am doing something wrong when I’m hatching my chickens. It seems like a lot of them have a hard time getting out of the egg shell. I’ve been running a 100° temperature and 50% humidity all through incubation period On this run. I was told to keep the humidity around the 50% range at all time that way you will have a smaller chick and it would be easier to get Out of the shell. Another batch of chickens that I hatched had a very similar result on day 18 I increase the humidity to 65 or 70% on that run. Thanks

 

[Spartan22]

I’m no expert on hatching but did you have couple of thermometers and hygrometer monitoring your incubators to be sure of the accurate reading? Incubator quality matters a lot. Your 100 temp is running on the warmer side, and the HR should be 60-70% on lockdown. This is only my 4th hatching, and so far I have near 100% hatched all the time, lucky I guess, but could be the accuracy of the incubator.

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

I’m no expert on hatching but did you have couple of thermometers and hygrometer monitoring your incubators to be sure of the accurate reading? Incubator quality matters a lot. Your 100 temp is running on the warmer side, and the HR should be 60-70% on lockdown. This is only my 4th hatching, and so far I have near 100% hatched all the time, lucky I guess, but could be the accuracy of the incubator.

Yes I have a digital temp and hr and a mercury temp and the digital one that actually sends the humidity in. 100* isn’t on the warm side 99.5-102 is the rule of thumb. 99.5 is suppose to be the optimum temp

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

Any other thoughts out there?

 

[curious1969]

Have you tested your hygrometer for accuracy? Everyone usually has a different opinion on humidity, but I run mine around 30% for incubation and 60-65% during lockdown and this works for me.

 

[Kessel23]

How often are they turned?

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

Well I have 2 of them and they are th same. I talked to another guy that hatches a lot and he said the humidity is too high he said to run it at 43% to 45% on humidity and Run the temperature at 99.5° at the most that way the chick is smaller. He said on a lockdown I can turn the humidity up to 52-55%

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

How often are they turned?

They are turned automatically every 2hrs

 

[curious1969]

In my opinion your temp is fine, you just need to figure out your humidity. I am assuming you have a forced air incubator? Do you candle your eggs and watch the air cell size?

 

[northdakotaoutfitting.com]

It is forced air yes. I only candle them once I guess. He said the are getting to big and can’t move around in there so if I turn the heat and humidity down a touch they won’t grow so fast/get as big