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| Incubator possibly too dry and birds are stuck in egg |
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| Birdguy:
Validate the temperature is correct. Turner should rotate about every 4 hours, hope you can see that as it happens or set the turner up out of the incubator and see how often it rotates. Eggs should be stored pointy end down and turned 30degrees or so twice a day while waiting to go into the incubator, keep them cool, less than 60degrees if possible (obviously do not freeze). See if you can put a small hole or if one already exists that you can run a straw into to fill the water channels without opening the incubator. For the bulk of the hatch you only want the humidity at 40 to 50% only raise it IF NEEDED the last few days. Generally as hatching starts the humidity will increase on its own, up to 75% is good. Most likely the chicks actually drowned in the egg after pipping with humidity that high. The air movement dries them out and you think you have a different issue. Hope this helps and if you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask! |
| Bango skank:
Stupid question from a guy who has never raised chickens. Couldnt you just let a broody hen sit them? |
| wonder:
Thanks for the advice. Pretty sure it has been operator error. Just feel bad that I get them all the way up to mature development and then lose them at the end. Instructions just say sensor is most accurate between 60-80%. It never specifies what you should keep them at for the duration. Did a little more reading and sure enough the majority of experienced hatchers say humidity should be much lower than what I have been attempting. It didn't make sense when I was doing this that a natural hatch could maintain that high of a humidity. Hard lesson to learn. Looking forward to trying a new batch with less humidity. Just curious, would this same process also be valid for turkey eggs? Much appreciated, thank you. |
| Don_D:
--- Quote from: Bango skank on May 26, 2020, 09:50:06 PM ---Stupid question from a guy who has never raised chickens. Couldnt you just let a broody hen sit them? --- End quote --- That's the way I prefer to do it but some years I don't get broody hens at all or years like this year I get 3-4 of them at the same time. I made my own incubator and have a batch in it now that should be hatching over the next couple days. |
| Machias:
Sorry you lost some. I'm hoping to do this as soon as I get power to the property. Good luck with your future attempts. |
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