Greatlander Offspring AutomaticTurn 51 Egg Incubator

The results are in on the first full run through the Greatlander Offspring.

Of 20 fertile eggs, collected from breeders out of breeding season (who were not on a breeder ration) resulted in a 80% hatch. We have 16 chicks from 20 fertile eggs. No assistance was given at all during this hatch.

That is a good result for any incubator. 80% is the target with eggs with high hatchability. I couldn't vouch for the quality of these eggs. They could have been a bit ordinary given the off-season collection and the regular feed.
Of the four that died, two pipped then didn't get any further, one failed to pip and one had died earlier in incubation. I think it's impossible to determine what exactly caused those deaths under these circumstances. It could have been egg quality.

Overall, I think the incubator has to be given a tick for performance. I know it's only one run, but it wasn't given the best quality eggs to work with and still managed an 80% hatch rate. During that time we've broken a few rules such as overlapping hatches and opening the lid etc. That's the reality of what's going to happen when it's in use so I think it's better to just do it and find out how touchy the unit is. This one seems fine. Perhaps I would recommend giving eggs a light spray if the unit gets opened at hatch time again. I think that would be worthwhile given that we lost two after pipping.
Cathy Newton