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« on: February 16, 2021, 08:59:45 AM »
Mitch,
I think you're doing a great job by really monitoring all your numbers and reducing your interaction with the eggs. I know people that are using really high humidity and others really low. I know that air circulation can be a problem as well. Make sure they have good ventilation. Where I am 50% humidity is on the high side.
Maybe consider trying hatches at different humidity. I also have had some success with weighing my hatching eggs to monitor weight loss to adjust humidity. But in the end I'd lend more towards genetics on this one. You may be able to mess with a few variables to improve some. But 50% hatch isn't considered bad in my opinion and may just be the best you can do with that group of hens. If you have several hens together and aren't sure which laid which egg, it might be helpful if you could separate them to try to figure out if it's a hen or two that's having the problem and not all of them. If you can't separate them, I'd look closely at the eggs and try to notice their differences. It seems that each hen usually lays a little different size/shape/color and I can somewhat tell the eggs that came from the same bird. Also where are you located and what variety are these?