Brinsea have no luck?

[PoultryQueen101]

For Christmas, I received the Octagon 20 adv Brinsea. Or at least I think so... it holds about 20 medium eggs. Well, anyhow, this spring we hatched between 7 and 12 chicks, but as the summer progressed, we got down to 1 and 4 chicks. We decided on this last batch to finally have a complete wash of the thing and only successfully hatched 3 chicks, and only 2 made it... I know thw humidity has been bad this summer and lots of hatches were bad with many, but is this our fault, the incubators problem, or the humidity as to why we are failing at hatching? Our humidity was betqeen 50 and 55 and the temperature between 99 and 102. And we of course stop turning on the 18th day and boost humidity and all that. But we just wandered why?! We may hatch again in november, so we wwnt the best results possible.

 

[donrae]

Can you give us more information? Are the chicks not developing? Partially? Fully developing but not pipping? Pipping, then dying?

My first thought is the humidity is too high during the first part of incubation. I'll let the experienced hatchers chime in and see what else could be going on.

 

[sumi]

I have used the same model Brinsea for the last 2 years and I've had wonderful hatches. Interestingly both places I've lived in was very humid and damp, but I bought a hygrometer to monitor humidity in the incubator and found it easy to control and adjust. As Donrae said above we'd need more info to be able to help, but in the meantime have a look at this troubleshooting guide and see if that sheds some light:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

I too have the same model and have had great hatches with it. The humidity holding steady no matter what it is in the room. More info would be very useful as said above. You say you think it's a Brinsea? Also humidity seems a little high I find 45% 1-18 best then 65% for lockdown. 99-102f also seems a little high for a forced air(fan) incubator. Brinsea recommends 99.3-99.6 for there forced air incubator which the octagon adv should be. You should be able to set it too exactly what you want and it should only really differ by point one of a degree as the heating element comes on and off.
You should be able to see when the heating element is coming on and off by the little asterisk next to temp display on top of the incubator. Hope this helps you in someway and good luck with future hatches.

 

[PoultryQueen101]

(Lol, sorry for ranges, I am not the one who sets it.)

On average, all of the eggs are fully developing and needing assistance or dying at hatch.
Also, im positive its a brinsea, but wasnt sure what type.

What I am basically asking, what are the proper temperatures and humidity to use during incubation?

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

(Lol, sorry for ranges, I am not the one who sets it.)

On average, all of the eggs are fully developing and needing assistance or dying at hatch.
Also, im positive its a brinsea, but wasnt sure what type.

What I am basically asking, what are the proper temperatures and humidity to use during incubation?

Can you post a pic of your incubator? The most likely cause of chicks fully developing and not hatching is incorrect humidity during incubation normally too high. Short term variations in humidity are not important. The average humidity over the incubation period needs to be near optimum to achieve the ideal weight loss. The typical ideal weight loss for poultry is 13%. I incubate at 37.5 Celsius for the whole incubation period. I have humidity at 45% day 1-18 then at lockdown 65%. I have very good results. I only candle 3 times also day 7 day 14 and day 18. I also have a rule once lockdown has commenced DO NOT OPEN the incubator no matter what is going in there.

 

[PoultryQueen101]

Yeah, probably humidity, this last hatch we had 99 temp and 55 % hum. Throughout day 1-18. Then we bumped it up to 65%.
We candled day 12 and 18. Then, we give til day 21 is over. Most chicks hatch early and at the same time if they are going to. We used to hatch like 8 or 9 chicks hatch, I just wandered why we have only 1 and 4 now. Our rule on lockdown is that if a chick is pipped and lots of the eggs are hatching, we leqve it til day 22. Then, any chicks in the bator get moved and pipped eggs get candled. We save a few chicks from shell death this way, knowing they will likely be weak. Everyone says dont help them hatch, but sometimes you just have to and they turn out fine.