Bad hatch rate

[hannahmcbain12]

Hi guys, I recently had a hatch of coturnix quail eggs. I had bought 75shipped quail eggs and had 15 of my own totaling 90 eggs. My humidity was hovering around 45% to 50% and my temps stayed a constant 99.5F and I am using a farm innovators pro series 4200 circulated air with automatic egg turner and 2 different thermometers/ hydrometers. Right before lock down, I candled and got rid of 12 eggs that were not fertile so that's 78 eggs alive and well at the beginning of day 14. We went into lockdown after taking the eggs out of the turners and raised the humidity to 65% pretty constant. And all the vent holes were open during the entire incubation time for good air flow. On the end of day 15, eggs stared to rock and roll and externally pip.... I never had a hatch pip so early on just day 15! But by the end of day 16, I only had 23 eggs hatch out of the 78 live and fertile.... Sad. So I left the fertile eggs I. The incubator for a few more days and nobody hatched. I did an eggtopsy to find out that the embryos were fully formed and internally pipped and never hatched. So what went wrong? I never had a temp spike and now really confused. Any answer would help!

 

[dc3085]

How many other thermometers have you checked your primary thermometer with? I use 3 every time I start up the incubator. Some aren't accurate when you buy them others lose accuracy as time goes on. Verify your temp for sure, if it is correct we'll try to think of something else.

 

[hannahmcbain12]

I had 3 different thermometers reading all the same temps as well as 3 different hydrometers. That's why I'm confused about this ordeal I can't figure out what I did wrong!

 

[dc3085]

When the shipped eggs arrived did you let them sit out on the counter for 24 hours?

 

[hannahmcbain12]

Yes they rested for 24 hours. Remember, these embryos were fully formed, maybe I should try 80% humidity next time.

 

[dc3085]

Just because they are fully formed doesn't mean some environmental or handling factor isn't involved. Xray machines can damage embryos and if the box was rough housed in shipping too much it can lead to a chick that forms but does not hatch due to damage to the air sac. This may not be the cause, but everything has to be considered since it seems you incubated under perfect conditions.

Spending too long over the low 70%'s can drown chicks in the shell. I run my humidity right at 70%.

How long did you wait to remove the chicks from the incubator after hatch?

 

[Dragons4u]

They sound like they developed quickly. Could have gotten too big to hatch out properly, maybe?
My first hatch of bobs, I had to help over a third of the eggs cause they were to big to turn inside the eggs to externally pip.

 

[sniper338]

How many of your own hatched vs the shipped eggs.... thats right there will tell you something if they were tossed around too much in the mail or something... theres a ton of factors it could be... humidity is too high for my likings... i run my eggs 30%-45% then 60% at lockdown.... i think humidity was too high... but if youve done it before who knows.