21 Days and 7 hours -- only 3 birds hatched -- should I be worried?

[Guest]

OK.....here\'s what happened so far:

Day 20 (yesterday) at 4 PM got the first pip. By 10 (Day 21), one bird hatched and six more eggs were pipped.

This morning -- Day 21+ 7 hours -- three birds have hatched, I still see about four or five pips and nothing else. Is this normal, or am I in for a very high mortality rate?

I\'m concerned, because some of the eggs pipped more than 12 hours ago and nothing has happened with them since.

The three hatches so far are Ameraucana/RIR crosses. One pure Ameraucana egg is pipped but that\'s it.

[bantamhill]

What it the incubator temperature and humidity?

Michael

[John]

According to what I posted under the Incubation Duration topic they should hatch between 21 and 21.5 days and raising the temp one degree should get them to hatch 11 hours sooner.  
It sounds like you\'re on the right track or close to it.  I would increase the incubator temperature by one degree next time.
If they pip after 20 days but don\'t hatch the problem is probably not the temp, but could be a combination of several things like humidity during the hatch, sufficient oxygen during the incubation period, diet of the hens, number of days the eggs were held prior to incubation, conditions the eggs were subject to prior to incubation, etc.

[Guest]

Mike,

Temp is 99.5F humidity 70%.

John...thanks....Now 11 - 13 have hatched and three of the blue (Ameraucana) eggs have significant pipping.

Breed/sex link question here: Ameraucana Silver Male + RIR female -- will that produce a sex link? All of the hatches so far are the Easter eggers. Some are yellow with just a tinge of brown or black -- others have a lot of black in them. Are the latter roosters in the making?

[bantamhill]

I am located in Central Missouri and I run my incubators warm - 100 degrees in with force air.

I use no extra moisture until the last three days of incubation. I would say they are just a little slow hatching from your update.

Michael

[Guest]

Ron,

How are things going? Let us know...

[Guest]

Laura,

By the end of Day 21/beginning of Day 22, I had 14 hatches.

Today -- is going to be the end of Day 22/beginning of Day 23. I have what appears to be 9 or 10 more that hatched late. I\'ll remove them at 10 PM.

I have what looks like a pipped/dead; two or three eggs which are pipped and still getting ready to hatch and three or four with nothing -- most likely these are some eggs I couldn\'t really verify if they were dead germs or not. I\'m going to candle these tonight -- they\'re most likely gone. I hope whatever hatches does so by tonight, because that incubator is really getting gross inside now.

Most of the late hatches are Ameraucana, but a few are RIR. I forgot the simple principle that heat rises -- I probably should have put the thermometer at the top of the eggs when they were flat on the base as opposed to in the turner. I\'ll test this theory when everything is done.

I\'ll post the final results when done.

--Ron

[Guest]

Here are nearly the final numbers:

Day: 24 RIR and 22 Ameraucana eggs.

Day 18: Removed 4 RIR & 3 Ameraucana Dead Germs; 8 Ameraucana infertiles, leaving 20 RIR and 11 Ameraucana

Day 21: 11 RIR hatched.  

Day 22: 11 birds hatched. Since I saw what I thought where three more pips and one trying to hatch, I left them till this morning.  

Day 23: 5 RIR dead germs found, including one that appeared to pip (on candling, though it\'s not a pip/die -- it\'s a dead germ that probably exploded); Ameraucana: 1 pipped/die; 1 more dead germ.

There are two birds I\'m concerned about now -- one is still live, but could not break the shell. I did something controversial -- removed the shell gently and sprayed the membrane with water and put back in the incubator. This bird is just rocking in the incubator and peeping, but that\'s it. The second bird of concern has a right leg with the toes all curled. Can\'t walk. I have a bad feeling I may have to put one or these two birds down.  


RIR: 15/24 = 62.5% (Fail -- the incubator manufacturer says 70% is a successful hatch).

Ameraucana:  9/22 = 40.91% or if I have to put the two birds down (the very late hatch and the bad leg)) it\'s 7/22 or 32%.

Total: 24 birds (22 if I have to put the two down).

Finally....I put the thermometer down at the height equivalent to the top of the eggs as they lay on the wire mesh as opposed to being in the turner. Yep....the temperature is one or two degrees lower down there. That explains the late hatch, the pip/alive and the bad leg, as well as possibly the pip/dead.

Had I adjusted the thermometer\'s height and then raised the temperature accordingly, the outcome might have been a lot different.  

[bantamhill]

What type of incubator do you have? If you are using a styrofoam one I would suggest getting the fan and installing it . . . the fan will even the temperature out in the incubator. Probably costs around $25.00-30.00. I have three little giant styrofoam incubators that I use this time of year when the \"sportsman\" is full and I need something for the \"over flow\". I haven\'t had problems since I installed the fans and stopped using water in the tray until the last three days of incubation.

Michael

[Guest]

It\'s forced air with the fan....but heat rises. I have the same problem in my house with the forced air heating system on a single zone. Third floor is like an oven, second is just right and the first is like a refrigerator. Same principle.

The machine was set perfectly for Days 1 - 18 with a turner in place. I should have lowered the thermometer\'s height and then raised the temperature at the deck to 99.5. The temp at the deck was about 96/97. Now I know.

The bird I had to assist out of the shell died on its onw. The cripple has to be put down.

Final result:

RIR: 15/24
Ameraucana: 7/22

--Ron

[John]

Once you have the results of your first hatch in that incubator don\'t worry about the location of the thermometer.  Keep it in the same location next time and adjust the heat up or down a degree or two to get the majority of chicks to hatch as close to 21 days as possible.
The temp in GQF incubators varies more than a degree from one location to another in the incubator.  I had one dial thermometer in my Leahy that read between 96 and 98 degrees and when it did I knew I had the temp right.  
The GQFs recommend 100.0 to 100.5 degrees.  The get a new incubator close I use a digital thermometer on in the middle of the center rack on a GQF.  After that I only use thermometers to make sure there are no drastic changes.  The proper gauge is the chicks hatching on time.

[Guest]

John,

Thanks. On that note, there\'s probably little point in keeping the hygrometer in there either, though that\'s what I did.

The babies are adorable and I\'m going to enjoy them while I have them here.

--Ron

[John]

probably little point in keeping the hygrometer in there

The first time I used my GQF hatcher I put a wick on a thermometer to check the humidity.  It was fine.  I haven\'t checked it since with a wick and don\'t adjust the vents, which would cause the biggest change in humidity.
I have since bought a couple digital thermometer/hydrometers and used them in each incubator and hatcher when I fired them up for the season.  After that they came out.  I do leave the dial thermometers in the units that came with them.  I adjusted them all to read 100 degrees after I had the temps set so that the eggs hatch on time.  
Since opening the door or lid during a hatch is a great way to lose humidity I don\'t open the hatcher very open, but when I do I try to compensate by pouring water on floor of the hatcher just before closing the door.

[Guest]

Since opening the door or lid during a hatch is a great way to lose humidity I don\'t open the hatcher very open, but when I do I try to compensate by pouring water on floor of the hatcher just before closing the door.

my last hatch in the GQF straggled out over a couple of days, but I poured in hottish water after I took out chicks every evening- the steam restored the humidity and the temp quickly.  might not work for everyone though- I live in a very dry environment.  but I had no chicks stick to their shells this time, which was a vast improvement!

[Guest]

After this thread started I paid attention to set times on the bator.. I set eggs on Sunday March 19th at 7pm they started hatching today april 9th at around 4 pm so far 11 out of 35 hatched.. I have 3 thermomiters in the bator all digitals the top one is right infront of the water pan it reads 101.8.. the next one is magnetic hanging on the middle tray in the turning area it reads 100.. the last one is in the bottom infront of the hatching tray reads 99.7.. actual humidity is right around 85%.  Learned a couple tricks with the Sportsman thought I\'d pass on. I have 2 humidity pads in it couldn\'t get humidity up to where it needed to be so I looked for a reason and found the hole where the hose runs from the automatic filler( 5 gallon bucket on the top) so i filled the area around it with paper towels turned the pan slightly cross ways so the fan blew across both pads.. worked great so far. the top center vent is open 1/2 way bottom center vent is barley cracked open. the rest are closed... hatched 22 out of 30 last week. see what happens this week. Chris