problems

[nigel5764]

HI ,any advice greatly welcome.the past few hatches have been very disapointing and i don,t know where im,e going wrong. going on my last hatch.i have a r-com suro incubator i bought a more precise thermometer and hygrometer to calibrate it with ,i put 24 eggs in ,steralised the incubator and cleaned eggs .incubator at 99.5 put no humidity in but was sitting at abought 40% until day 18 which i upped it to 65% of which 18 of my eggs were in chick.now this is where i dont understand where ive gon wrong from day 18 to hatch day only 4 hatched.On day 25 i called it a day,i cracked open the eggs to find dead fully formed chicks why havent they hatched.very upset and disallusioned hope you can shed some light.
Thanks
Nigel

 

[tygrysek75]

It could be many reasons genetics for eg.closely related parents make chicks week,eggs to old.You have to tell us where the eggs frome,how old etc.Some breeds of chickens harder to hach than others too.

 

[nigel5764]

Eggs were of internet ,lavender orpingtons as i said can,t understand fully formed chicks at day 18 but no hatch at day21

 

[Chuck]

Only one possinbility that I can see - don't raise the humidity until the first eggs chip.

Also, don't clean the eggs unless they are very dirty.

 

[foxy]

Yes I agree with Chuck, and I hatch dry(35%) right up until the last day and they start to pip. It looks like they have developed and didn't have enough room to manoeuvre into hatching position and pip.

Hatchibilty does vary from breeder to breeder, and eggs that have come through the post may have damage to their airsacs not discernible unless you know what you are looking for when candling. Air sac damage doesn't affect a fertile egg growing but will affect the later stages.

The Kingsuro is a good machine, I had good hatches in mine before I sold to a forum member who has also had good results using the technique above. Maybe have a look locally for hatching eggs, you could always pop a wanted post on the forum.

 

[kegs]

Only asking because you didn't mention it - did you open the vent so there was plenty of air in the incubator?

 

[nigel5764]

yes i had air vent fully open kegs,could temp be a factor causing chicks to grow to big to hatch as i keep hearing of temp to high earlier hatch,temp to low later hatch.

 

[tygrysek75]

The eggs have to loose some of the water for the chick to be able manuvre itself to hatch.if it had't lost eunugh then he is in trouble.But as Foxy said you have less chance of hatching when eggs go thru postal system especially if postman do not care and the sggs shaken badly.it appeers somtimes that everything is well but by the hatch time chicks start to die.

 

[AlexArt]

Postal eggs can be pretty hit and miss, you did better than me on my first load I did this year with ebay eggs - I think I got 4 out of 32 or something! 11 - there were a good 12 or 14 of those dead in shell too, some stopped mid incubation and most were infertile - it can just be one of those things.

I run my R-com suro, if I'm using it as an inci and not a hatcher, at about 38 dgrees as I know the thermometer isn't the most accurate, I also run it dry, so humidity was around 32% with the vent open which I only upped as others have said when the first ones start to pip to 58% when they start to hatch the humidity goes up on it's own anyway. Get rid of the black sponge thing in the bottom as I'm sure it harbours bugs as it's so difficult to clean!, just put a jay cloth on the bottom for hatching. My main inci is a manual old thing with a digital temp/humidity in it and that I run at around 37.6 - 38.1 - it's rather tempremental!, humidity is anywhere between 25% and 45% when I remember to chuck some water in! - and the last few lots of ebay eggs of different breeds and species and have had about 50 - 100% hatch, alot have had ruptured air sacs too - but it really is down to luck/how postie handles them/how they're packed/the quality and age of the parents/their diet/age of eggs/quality of eggs and any bugs that are on the shells or if they have been cleaned. Also if you do candle your eggs, it's a good idea to, so you can take out any duff eggs as you go.
So don't give up hope I know it is quite disheartening but postal eggs really are difficult so you've not done too badly - I have had a good few totally duff lots from ebay this year and they weren't cheap either!!

I think also with the lavender coloured birds you need to breed recessive birds to each other to keep the colour as it's a dilute so people do more inbreeding than normal with these colours, and there aren't many about, which can affect fertility and hatch rates hugely, orps aren't always the best layers either and withh all this terrible weather it has thrown alot of birds off laying so the eggs you got may have been old ones.

 

[nigel5764]

Hey thanks alex ,and every one else hopefully with all the info youve told me fingers crossed for a better hatch will keep informed.