I am new at incubating eggs. I started off with thirty some chickens last year and at this point I am down to three. Two roosters and one hen. Although I do have some eggs in the incubator from two other hens before they got taken in the middle of the night.

Here is my problem. I bought a still air incubator on 1/30/02 and since then I have hatched 0 chicks out of 20 some eggs that should have hatched. The first batch I put in I was not sure how long they had been out there so I did not expect them to hatch but still wanted to give it a try. Now I always crack my eggs open after 23 days (I always allow two more days in hope) and four of the eggs had perfectly formed chicks inside. The chicks had beaks, legs, wings, and even chick fuzz on their bodies. They looked normal. So why did they not hatch. I turn my eggs two times a day. Once in the morning when I get up and then once at night before I go to bed.

If anyone has advise please give it.

Health and nutrition of your breeders, and incubator conditions.

Breeders should have a good feed and be free of parasites to produce eggs that will have all the stuff a healthy chick needs.

Follow your incubator instructions and make sure that you are maintaining the incubator properly.

It sounds like your chickens are in a pretty stressful environment. This could affect the quality of your eggs.

In cold weather you have to collect the eggs before they get too cold.

Anonymous, There is a good site to go to with all the answers---you just have to figure out which one pretains to your hatch??

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_AA204

Sorry I don't know how to make the address so you can click on it. CJR

I bought a little giant still air incubator. I had a problem keeping the humidity high enough for them to hatch on their own. I had to put a wet washcloth in the incubator along with keeping the water troughs filled. I bought a small humidity gauge. On day 21 or 22, I do open the incubator to check the eggs. I put them to my ear to see if I hear pecking. If you hear pecking or scratching then, you might have to try helping them out after waiting 24 hrs. My eggs were all pipped but, I did have to help most of them out due to low humidity.

That is probably the problem, low humidity. I will try adding a wash cloth. I keep the troughs filled. Thank you for the advice.

Hi everyone: Let me tel you how I am being very successful after trying to hatch eggs in one of those styrofoam incubators. My hubby build me an incubator, and I keep the temp at 99.5 for 19 days. On the 19th day I removed the eggs and put them in a hatcher(which I keep with a full pan of water) which I think is the secret to successful hatching. On the 21st day , i open the hatcher and I have had about a 98% hatch rate. I live in Florida and it is very humid here, so I do not provide humidity while in the incubator, only once I transfer them to the hatcher is when i have the humidity factor.
I have hatched approx. 80 eggs out of 100 (More or less) this way in the last 30 days and I am thrilled!!!
Hope this helped, feel free to email me directly if you want to ask me any more questions.
Good luck!!!!!