late hatches from the incubator

[khawks]

I had 10 eggs, 3 hatch on day 21 and 3 hatch on day 22 and 23, lost one after external pip-it was stuck. We are now at day 27 and temp is at 100 and Ive been using a meat thermometer...according to the humidity gage on the incubator, it is right around 65% (I'm assuming its time for me to purchase a humidity gage, because this thing cant be trusted)...well anyways, I just candled all three remaining eggs- the air sack seems to be evaporated pretty largely, and I can still see atleast one blood vessel in each egg. I do not see movement, which I haven't seen in any of the eggs since about day 18, after my last candle.

should I consider these eggs dead in shell?

 

[Zanlm]

How did it turn out?

 

[2dz shavon]

I'm following I would love to know what happened with your little ones

 

[dorpersheep]

And I just did the water candle. Yeppers I have wiggles!

Did you end up with any chickies Zanlm??

 

[KatD]

Sorry to hear your havng problems

My thoughts would be with what you have described that the temps are too low causing late hatch. I would get another thermometer just to be sure. I hear the Brinsea spot check is good. Also if your eggs are getting to lockdown and then dying that would point me towards too high humidity during incubation. 55%-60% is too high in my opinion for day 1-18. I find 45% adequate for the weight loss needed and air sac growing large enough. Humidity needs to be an average over the entire incubation period short term changes shouldn't be a problem.
Hope this helps and good luck in the future

From the original post, I got 5 surviving chicks. The chicks hatched by day 27 but not without assistance. One zipped and got stuck. For a day nothing else happened and I saw the band between the half shells begin to resemble dry glue. So I gently pealed back the band and he got out. Several others pipped the beaks and peeped but made no further progress. One died on day 27 so I broke the other beak pips out. Of the five I assisted. One died on day 4. Normally I would not interfere but by this time we had nothing to loose. I was a good decision.

I immediately prepared for a new go at it. I lowered the humidity to 45 percent and used the thermometer you recommended. It was three degrees F different from the one I had been using. It was scary increasing the heat so much but it seemed reasonable with three late hatches. I am happy to report larger air sacs, great blood vessel and movement on day 18 of 27 eggs. Eggs wiggled yesterday. Sunday noon will begin day 21. This is Saturday day 20. I am moving my five 3 week old chicks to the upper brooder today where there are two more inches overhead and a 75 watt infrared bulb which is a little cooler than the 150 below. When it cools I will drop that down to 100 as well. The radiant heat is accumulative. I have been testing that as well. I am hopeful of the better results. Thank you for your excellent advise. I shall keep you posted.

Thanks from the gulf coast region of Texas.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi there @KatD how are things going? Are you on day 21 now? I'm not sure what time you are on there yet? It's 7.30pm here in dark and miserable Yorkshire UK. Hope you have a great hatch

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I'm with Yorkshire, curious, how's it going? Any hatchers yet, KatD?

 

[KatD]

I'm with Yorkshire, curious, how's it going? Any hatchers yet, KatD?

AmyLynn2374: Yorkshire suggested a particular brand of thermometer which I ordered online. It read several degrees F colder than did the ones I was using. So, given the evidence of 28 day low hatch rate, I reluctantly turned up the heat and Voila! I had 27 fertile of 41 eggs and of the 27, 24 hatched. Of those one died in the brooder in the first week. So the incubator had been too cold. I am on day 11 of a hatch now. At this point it looks like two unfertile, one detached air cell and one quitter with a blood ring. So looks like 37 viable eggs I have seen 25 embryo move. 2 were up side down for 7-9 days so I turned them as soon as I discovered it. I understand that the embryo turn toward the air cell on the 16-18 days anyway so maybe no harm has been done. After all the egg would not have been air cell up in the nest. For this hatch 9 were among Dominique rooster and hens, 6 were among a Blue laced Wyandotte rooster and a Dominique hen and a Black Australorpe hen, The remainder were from the hen house with a dominant Lavender Orpington rooster and a subordinate Blue laced red Wyandotte rooster with 9 Barred, 6 Black star, 2 red star, one Rhode Island Red and one Sport hen. It should be interesting to see how they appear.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

That's great to hear you have now solved the incubation problems. Something as simple as a low reading thermometer can cause such stress during hatch time.
Good luck with this hatch, as you say will be very interesting to see how they hatch and what they look like. I like crosses they really can produce some lovely birds.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

AmyLynn2374: Yorkshire suggested a particular brand of thermometer which I ordered online. It read several degrees F colder than did the ones I was using. So, given the evidence of 28 day low hatch rate, I reluctantly turned up the heat and Voila! I had 27 fertile of 41 eggs and of the 27, 24 hatched. Of those one died in the brooder in the first week. So the incubator had been too cold. I am on day 11 of a hatch now. At this point it looks like two unfertile, one detached air cell and one quitter with a blood ring. So looks like 37 viable eggs I have seen 25 embryo move. 2 were up side down for 7-9 days so I turned them as soon as I discovered it. I understand that the embryo turn toward the air cell on the 16-18 days anyway so maybe no harm has been done. After all the egg would not have been air cell up in the nest. For this hatch 9 were among Dominique rooster and hens, 6 were among a Blue laced Wyandotte rooster and a Dominique hen and a Black Australorpe hen, The remainder were from the hen house with a dominant Lavender Orpington rooster and a subordinate Blue laced red Wyandotte rooster with 9 Barred, 6 Black star, 2 red star, one Rhode Island Red and one Sport hen. It should be interesting to see how they appear.

Wonderful you figured out what was going on and are having better hatches. My very first hatch was the same way. I didn't check the thermometer and is was 6 degrees off. Compromised my hatch. Once I corrected that, great hatches followed. Congrats!