Incubator failure

[bohok]

Trying to compensate for a truly terrible incubator. I’ve babysat these eggs religiously the entire time, as they are from a rooster and several hens who we no longer have or lost to a predator. We are on day 20 and we lost one chick today, and I’m paranoid now. She had even gotten her beak out and I was monitoring her breathing and movement, and then suddenly when I checked her beak was out and there was no movement. I watched and watched and just knew. Her mama was one we lost and I’m heartbroken. I took her egg out with a damp warm towel and gently removed some shell and determined quickly that I was right, she had just died.

The incubator dropped temperature for no reason at one point, down to 97.9. The humidity I’ve worked hard to keep in the 70-80s since lockdown (much lower the rest of the incubation).

Just looking for advice I guess. There are several others I’m watching that have pipped but not moved in hooooouuuuurrs. Usually with the ones that have already hatched if I made noise they’d respond. These ones aren’t. One looks like the photo below. Should I pull them out and help them a little just in case the incubator inconsistencies affected them too?

 

[Coops Dad]

A small drop in temperature like that won't make a difference, especially on hatch day. I had a decent incubator hatch (16 out of 18) during the week of rolling blackouts in winter 2020 here in Texas. Also momma chickens get off their nests pretty much daily; my broodies sometimes take hour long breaks a couple of times daily throughout their hatches. Keep the humidity up and best of luck!

 

[bohok]

A small drop in temperature like that won't make a difference, especially on hatch day. I had a decent incubator hatch (16 out of 18) during the week of rolling blackouts in winter 2020 here in Texas. Also momma chickens get off their nests pretty much daily; my broodies sometimes take hour long breaks a couple of times daily throughout their hatches. Keep the humidity up and best of luck!

That makes sense. So…why would she suddenly go from unzipping to dead? She looked absolutely perfect.

 

[Coops Dad]

That makes sense. So…why would she suddenly go from unzipping to dead? She looked absolutely perfect.

Could have been anything. Might've run out of energy, might've aspirated some residual shell juice, might not have developed fully and the lungs weren't ready. It's a miracle that it can grow from a zygote in a shell to a fully formed tiny bird in only three weeks in the first place. That it happens so often is boggling. The loss of one is always sad but be amazed in spite of it.

 

[CluckEmUp]

The incubator dropped temperature for no reason at one point, down to 97.9. The humidity I’ve worked hard to keep in the 70-80s since lockdown (much lower the rest of the incubation).

Like the other said, such temperature drops aren't gonna kill em (in fact I read some study that was done that on lockdown it's better to have the temperature slightly lower at 98F then keep it at 99.5F, apparently better hatch rates).

I think just bad luck, not all the eggs will make it.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

That makes sense. So…why would she suddenly go from unzipping to dead? She looked absolutely perfect.

I lost four my last hatch. They just weren’t strong enough to get out. But I still have 6/12, and in my cheap incubator, that is still a decent hatch.

 

[CluckEmUp]

I lost four my last hatch. They just weren’t strong enough to get out. But I still have 6/12, and in my cheap incubator, that is still a decent hatch.

I would consider assisting with the hatch, there's a topic/guide here somewhere

 

[NatJ]

I would consider assisting with the hatch, there's a topic/guide here somewhere

You are probably thinking of this article:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/