05/26/2026
TL;DR: Cute chicks hatched. Incubator off. Clean, scrub, reload. Chirp, chirp. (Turns out keeping 26 tiny dinosaurs alive requires an ungodly amount of math, science and stress, but they're cute, so whatever.)
--
I set eggs on May 4, 2026 at 5:24 PM and this morning the first incubator was officially powered down so it can rest, be cleaned, and loaded again. The second incubator is still finishing up. One egg is actively pipped, one chick just hatched, and the rest are fluffy, dry, and waiting to be moved out once the hatch fully wraps up.
This hatch was split across two separate incubators with 22 eggs set in each machine. The first incubator was entirely Ayam Cemani and Zombie crosses. Out of the 22 eggs set, 5 were removed before lockdown because they were clear or non-viable, leaving 17 eggs at lockdown. In the end, 13 healthy chicks hatched and are now in the brooder. Four eggs did not hatch. Three turned out to be clears or extremely early quitters that could not be identified sooner because dark shells make candling difficult. One chick was fully developed but failed to pip correctly and drowned because of a positional issue and air cell complication.
The second incubator was a split batch consisting of roughly 4 to 5 Ayam Cemani/Zombie crosses and 17 to 18 Cochin or Silkie rooster crosses. Out of the 22 eggs set, 5 clear eggs were removed before lockdown, leaving 15 eggs going into the final stage. So far, 12 chicks have fully hatched, one egg is actively pipped, and two eggs remain unpipped but are still being left alone until the incubator is finished because dark shells can hide development surprisingly well.
At the moment that brings the hatch total to 25 chicks, with a possible 26th still on the way. Honestly, it is lower than I hoped for, but it is still a much stronger outcome than my first hatch of the season. Once these incubators are cleaned out, eggs will be set again almost immediately. There is at least one more guaranteed hatch this season, and depending on how the next round goes, possibly one more after that.
For anyone unfamiliar with hatching, the process is a lot more complicated than simply putting eggs into a machine and waiting three weeks. Fertility, genetics, nutrition, shell quality, humidity, temperature stability, handling, and even chick positioning all affect outcomes. Poultry embryos are extremely sensitive during the first week of development. A large percentage of hatch loss usually happens very early, before the chick is even recognizable inside the egg.
Across both incubators, 10 out of 44 eggs were lost before lockdown because they were either not fertilized or experienced very early embryonic death. That sounds harsh, but it is actually one of the most common stages for loss in poultry breeding. Early development failures are often tied to factors like breeder age, stress, nutrition, environmental conditions, or simple genetic incompatibility. Once viable embryos made it to lockdown, the hatch rates improved significantly.
Using the dry hatch method again worked very well for me this round. Humidity was intentionally kept lower during days 1 through 18, usually between 30% and 45%, then raised above 60% during lockdown after the turners were removed on day 18. The purpose behind dry hatching is to encourage proper moisture loss from the egg during incubation. Eggs naturally lose water as chicks develop, which helps create the correct air cell size needed for hatching. If humidity stays too high for too long, chicks can struggle to pip or drown internally because the air cell never develops properly.
The numbers actually tell a better story than the raw hatch count does. From the first incubator, 13 chicks hatched out of 17 lockdown eggs, which works out to about a 77% lockdown hatch rate and roughly a 93% success rate among confirmed fertile developing eggs. The second incubator is currently sitting at about an 80% lockdown hatch rate, potentially reaching around 87% if the active pip finishes successfully. Combined across both machines, 25 chicks out of 32 lockdown eggs hatched successfully, giving an overall lockdown success rate of about 78%, potentially climbing to just over 81%.
What I am happiest about honestly is the low number of late deaths. Losing chicks right before hatch is usually the hardest part emotionally and often points to humidity or incubation issues. Out of 32 lockdown eggs, only one fully developed chick was lost at the very end due to positioning problems. That is still sad, but from a hatch management standpoint it means conditions stayed stable overall.
Breeding enough birds every season matters more than many people realize, especially with rare breeds and projects involving traits like fibromelanism. Chickens are not permanently productive breeders forever. Hens are usually most fertile during their first two to three years of life. They can continue laying eggs much longer than that, but fertility and hatchability often decline with age.
Roosters also lose fertility as they get older. Many remain active breeders for several years, but s***m quality, hatch rates, and successful fertilization percentages can gradually decrease over time. In smaller breeding programs, skipping a season or producing too few young birds can create major setbacks genetically because you lose future breeder options, diversity, and progress toward traits you are trying to preserve or improve.
A lot of people only see the cute chicks at the end. What they do not see are the weeks of monitoring temperatures, checking humidity, candling eggs, adjusting airflow, cleaning equipment, tracking fertility, and making difficult calls on what stays and what gets pulled. Every hatch teaches something.
Every season is different. Sometimes you do everything right and still lose eggs. That is just part of working with living animals.
