Hi all,
I hatch duck and chicken eggs for a local farmer when he needs to increase his flock maybe 2 times in spring/summer, have done for the past 5/6 years.
In the past, I’ve usually put 6 eggs in a small incubator and got at least 5 if not all of them out successfully. However, this year I’ve noticed that if I put 6 fertile eggs in, only 3 have been making it out. Haven’t changed anything in regard to humidity or temperature, but still around 50% of the eggs start to develop and then for some reason some stop about 2 weeks in or one of two of them make it to day 25-28 and then die.
The ones that hatch out are coming out textbook perfectly. Pip on air sac end and are usually out 24 hours from the external pip. I’ve done 3 batches of ducklings and 1 of chickens and I’ve had the exact same issue with all of them. I even tried to swap my incubator for a newer one from a neighbour in case it was my incubator. Put 18 fertile chicken eggs into the newer incubator and ended up with 7 chicks.
It just seems a bit bizarre to me given that I had a really good hatch rate previously
Has anyone else encountered this issue and does anyone know why it’s happening/how I can fix it? Quite annoying to be putting fertile eggs in for them to stop developing 10 days in or even worse just not hatch after making it all the way to the end!
Thanks!
I hatch duck and chicken eggs for a local farmer when he needs to increase his flock maybe 2 times in spring/summer, have done for the past 5/6 years.
In the past, I’ve usually put 6 eggs in a small incubator and got at least 5 if not all of them out successfully. However, this year I’ve noticed that if I put 6 fertile eggs in, only 3 have been making it out. Haven’t changed anything in regard to humidity or temperature, but still around 50% of the eggs start to develop and then for some reason some stop about 2 weeks in or one of two of them make it to day 25-28 and then die.
The ones that hatch out are coming out textbook perfectly. Pip on air sac end and are usually out 24 hours from the external pip. I’ve done 3 batches of ducklings and 1 of chickens and I’ve had the exact same issue with all of them. I even tried to swap my incubator for a newer one from a neighbour in case it was my incubator. Put 18 fertile chicken eggs into the newer incubator and ended up with 7 chicks.
It just seems a bit bizarre to me given that I had a really good hatch rate previously
Has anyone else encountered this issue and does anyone know why it’s happening/how I can fix it? Quite annoying to be putting fertile eggs in for them to stop developing 10 days in or even worse just not hatch after making it all the way to the end!
Thanks!