Can anyone tell by looking at my dead chick in it's shell why it may have died at the last minute?

[birdeo]

Quote:
I just picked out a couple of your messages you left per your worries about humidity during incubating that egg.
The best I can figure is you just did not have a good grasp of how humidity and weight loss relate to each other. NO BIGGIE , it can be hard to grasp at first but once fully understood it's easy.

For instance, in the emu hatch a long thread ( not sure if I'm leaving the link right below ) but it's easily found in this forum .
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/845446/emu-hatch-a-long-2014/70
you said :
"~~Hi guys I am on day 48. My humidity is down to 40%. What should I do to get it down? Also, I am at an 18.47% egg LOSS weight. I am encroaching the danger zone right? WHAT DO I DO! My baby is wiggling. I am so freaking worried that I have a viable chick that may drown here. "

at 18.47 % they will not drown, if anything they will dehydrate a bit but not much. If you LOWERED your humidity at that time it would've dried up anymore shooting your weight loss up even higher.

Your first post that I could find in that thread was you had 4 grams lost the first day, WAY TOO HIGH but seems you got it down.
Here is what you said per that post:
"~~Even though I have been reading through all the posts here, past and present, I have found that on the first 24 hours of incubation that my egg has only lost 4 grams. It started at 657 and today is ONLY 654. I have read that my humidity may be to high and to decrease it. I did not need to add any water to my incubator because 38% to 40% humidity is what it is normally without doing anything at all. My egg should have lost 1.9 grams today. ~~How do I decrease the humidity in my incubator?"

" ONLY " 4 gram loss ?
4 gram wt. loss was way too high, as you mentioned further into the post it should have lost 1.9 grams .
Your humidity was way too low if anything, if you decreased it that egg would've lost even more.
Then I saw in that thread where you had weight losses in the 19-20 % range or so...again, too high.
N/T to look it all up and was def. not watching it back then but you had weight loss/humidity control issues ...
I did not assume wrong.

 

[birdeo]

Quote:
Also, you did not mention anything to me in the p.m. about your " log".
You also stated in a p.m to me that I had told you something else about hatching these eggs... I replied back letting you know that info. did not come from me but from another member here.

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

What about if the weight loss measures are taken weekly rather than in small increments? The goal is 15% weight loss over approx. 50 days. So fine adjustments made 7 times over the hatch if necessary would in my mind be easier on the chick and definitely easier on the surrogate. The variables in nature ie Dad moving often or not, turning or not turning, inside or outside of the nest.....etc would encourage us I would say to err on the side of not doing as much as we might be inclined.

 

[birdeo]

What about if the weight loss measures are taken weekly rather than in small increments? The goal is 15% weight loss over approx. 50 days. So fine adjustments made 7 times over the hatch if necessary would in my mind be easier on the chick and definitely easier on the surrogate. The variables in nature ie Dad moving often or not, turning or not turning, inside or outside of the nest.....etc would encourage us I would say to err on the side of not doing as much as we might be inclined.

Your weight losses could very well rocket up to 20% + in the first week then bottom out in the second, you really don't want to go by " averages" .
Best to keep them on a constant weight loss , fluctuating losses are not ideal.
Eggs will usually want to lose too much weight in the first week then level out until the last week , last week being a main
reason a lot of ref. will say to raise the humidity then.
Why no info. that I've found ( other than the Emu Farmers Handbook) deals with having to possibly need to raise the humidity level in the " first" week is beyond me .
The weight loss
needs to be checked/corrected/maintained on daily basis aiming for the ideal 15%.
In most cases you can get them close to that 15% in the first week then just spot check weigh 1x a week until the last week. ( depends again on the porosity/quality of the shells )

Mother nature is a tough cookie to beat, we can only try to mimic her and hope for the best.

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

Point taken. However I would like your feedback on addressing excessive weight loss by taping pores rather than adjusting humidity. What do you think?

 

[birdeo]

If you have an overly porous egg with excessive weight loss then sure, tape over a few porous spots and check it's weight loss often, you may have to add/remove some tape as you go to get it on track.
However, if you have say 5 other eggs in the same incubator that are doing well at your current humidity setting and that ONE egg isn't , you don't want to sacrifice the other 5 for the one. So yes, adding of the tape to one with excessive wt. loss is def. your best solution in that situation.

 

[EmuChemainusBC]

Sounds good. And on the flip side: if you have measured under weight loss......then what would you do?

 

[birdeo]

you can scrape ( very lightly and a very small spot ) of the outermost shell off, weigh and recheck the wt. loss often until it is getting close to 15 %.
This can lead to chances of easier contamination though, do so with a very clean knife and keep watch for any possible oozing afterwards.