Need advice on hatching baby chicks

My wife bought an incubator from Attwoods and attempted to follow the
instructions for hatching some chicks. She put 20 eggs in it and the
results were as follows: one healthy chick. one chick with a
deformed foot. two chicks that died in the process of hatching.
After waiting 25 days the rest of the eggs were inspected. Most of
them had chicks that were dead in the shell.

The instructions were to set the temp to 100 degrees. The incubator
allowed for an adjustment for the temp but did not do it
automatically. On a couple of occassions, we found that the temp had
dropped to 90 degrees and readjusted it accordingly. The instructions
also said to turn the eggs 3 times a day which we did.

The eggs were collected from 4 hens over a period of 4-5 days and
stored at room temperature in a carton. We candled the eggs after
one week and there were chicks in all of them.

That's what we did. Why did we experience these poor results and what
should we have done? Thanks for any help.
.

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