Mersiepoo, I found with my HB especially with guinea eggs, my best hatch came when I had higher humidity than they recommended. I found when I filled both reservoirs with water and kept them that way throughout the incubation the hatch vastly improved. I think they recommend filling one reservoir until the last week or so and then filling both. I had some pretty dismal hatches until I raised the humidity level during the entire incubation. Just my opinion.

Bonnie

Hi Bonnie!
That is a great idea...I think I will try it! I still have some guinea eggs around here. I didn't fill up the water reservoir that much, but I'll disinfect it and try it again, third times the charm, right? :D

Thanks for letting me know how you do it! I'll report back in about a month and let ya know what happened. :D Thanks again!

~ mersie poo :D

also are you sure the eggs are fertilized?

I've had miserable hatches with my Little Giant/Miller still air incubator as well, even after I went out and bought a NEW one (the only brand available at the feed store)! But I got an improvement in my hatch rate by investing in a digital probe thermometer, a good hygrometer and a Water Weasel, as suggested by my friend Alan (a Silkie breeder who knows his stuff), here, in his article 'Incubator-How To Control It'--you'll have to go to his site and navigate using the sidebar on the left:

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article.html

Also read 'Incubator Tips' on the same site. I got 13 of 50 eggs to hatch using this method, as opposed to 3 out of 47 the time before. Still a miserable hatch rate, but IMPROVED. If his info would be the same for Guinea eggs, I don't know.

I'm really starting to think that time of year has a lot to do with it, I've had a better hatch rate in the Spring than I do in Summer. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that chickens are kind of genetically pre-programmed to hatch better in the Spring, when food is more abundant...?

Next year will tell, when I set some eggs to hatch in Spring! :)

Velvet ~:>