Update. The Great Debate: Is it the incubator or the egg?

[yinepu]

Running dry incubation for the first 18 days is okay, but I think you still need increased humidity for the last 3 day (unless your chicks are too wet like mine). This is especially true if your chicks are dry.

not really.. depending on the size of the bator.. amount of chicks hatching and the room humidity you can actually get away with adding 0 water to the bator if conditions are right.. since as each chick hatches the humidity naturally rises in the bator from the moisture on the chicks down as well as the moisture in the egg shell...

for the last several hatches I have added 0 water during incubation and hatch and have still had 100% hatch rates.. however it's because the humidity here is high enough that no additional water is needed.. I'm sure come this summer I will be adding water just like I have in years past

the main thing (if a person wants to play the wait and see game) is keeping an eye on the hatching chicks and adjusting the humidity IF needed as they hatch

now having said all of that I think the average person in the average home will still need to add water at hatch.. but if conditions are right you can get away without having to do that

 

[Jungleexplorer]

not really.. depending on the size of the bator.. amount of chicks hatching and the room humidity you can actually get away with adding 0 water to the bator if conditions are right.. since as each chick hatches the humidity naturally rises in the bator from the moisture on the chicks down as well as the moisture in the egg shell...

for the last several hatches I have added 0 water during incubation and hatch and have still had 100% hatch rates.. however it's because the humidity here is high enough that no additional water is needed.. I'm sure come this summer I will be adding water just like I have in years past

the main thing (if a person wants to play the wait and see game) is keeping an eye on the hatching chicks and adjusting the humidity IF needed as they hatch

now having said all of that I think the average person in the average home will still need to add water at hatch.. but if conditions are right you can get away without having to do that

Ever since I discovered my wet chick problem, I have not added any water to my incubator (about four days now). It has stayed at about 24% for the last few days. Does that seem okay?

 

[yinepu]

Ever since I discovered my wet chick problem, I have not added any water to my incubator (about four days now). It has stayed at about 24% for the last few days. Does that seem okay?

yeah... mine usually hit anywhere between 25 to 35 here lately and the eggs have done great... if you are afraid they may be losing too much moisture just candle them to see how the air cells are doing

basically let the eggs and chicks tell you if you need to add any moisture or not

 

[Reyvaughn]

I kind of did the same thing...

1st round - 52 eggs set, all shipped - 0 hatched.
2nd round (under broody) - 18 eggs, 15 shipped, 3 my own - 12 shipped hatched, 3 of my own hatched.
3rd round (under broody) - 8 eggs, 8 shipped - all developed but the hen had complications - 5 hatched, but all would have hatched. 3 survived the hatch and being kicked out of the nest.
4th round - 36 set, all shipped - 11 hatched.
5th round - 45 set, 26 shipped, 19 mine (collected over 3.5weeks, so the odds were not good) - 5 shipped hatched, 3 of mine hatched.
6th round - 49 set, 8 shipped, 33 mine - 2 shipped hatched, 24 of mine hatched.
6.5th round (under broody) - 10 set, 10 shipped - 0 hatched.

My conclusion: It's the eggs and how they are packed. And it's the Incubator.
My incubator ran steady this last round and look at the hatch rate on my own chicks compared to the shipped. I had incubator issues the 1st, 4th and 5th rounds.

Edited to add: My incubator runs around 35-40% humidity the first 18 days and then I bump mine to 60-65% during lock down.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Just cracked open the four remaining eggs in the incubator. One quite about day seven. One quite around day 10. Another one quite about day 16 (developed but small and yolk not fully absorbed). One was fully developed but dead. The one that was fully developed confuses me, because it seemed perfect. It was not too wet or too dry. The only thing I noticed is that it was huge. It filled up the whole egg leaving only a tiny air pocket. I think it's beak had actually poked through the membrane into the air cell, so it was trying to pip before it died. What could have caused it too die?

 

[Jungleexplorer]

yeah... mine usually hit anywhere between 25 to 35 here lately and the eggs have done great... if you are afraid they may be losing too much moisture just candle them to see how the air cells are doing

basically let the eggs and chicks tell you if you need to add any moisture or not

Does everyone here agree with with the Air Cell diagram above? Day 18 seems a little large to me. It's like 40% of the space in the egg. If this is accurate, then my chicks that just hatch were having pool partys in their eggs, because all of the air cells in my eggs were the size of day 7 (or smaller) in this chart.

 

[yinepu]

Just cracked open the four remaining eggs in the incubator. One quite about day seven. One quite around day 10. Another one quite about day 16 (developed but small and yolk not fully absorbed). One was fully developed but dead. The one that was fully developed confuses me, because it seemed perfect. It was not too wet or too dry. The only thing I noticed is that it was huge. It filled up the whole egg leaving only a tiny air pocket. I think it's beak had actually poked through the membrane into the air cell, so it was trying to pip before it died. What could have caused it too die?

that was a swollen chick.. something else that can happen when they don't lose enough moisture during incubation.. sometimes they can hatch out (usually with help) .. but will usually die not long after hatch

 

[yinepu]

Does everyone here agree with with the Air Cell diagram above? Day 18 seems a little large to me. It's like 40% of the space in the egg. If this is accurate, then my chicks that just hatch were having pool partys in their eggs, because all of the air cells in my eggs were the size of day 7 (or smaller) in this chart.

again.. it's cause they were swollen up from the high humidity during incubation...
just so you can compare..

page 8 of the brinsea handbook has a diagram: http://www.brinsea.com/pdffiles/Brinsea_Handbook.pdf


also from http://guineafowlbirds.com/Guinea-Fowl-Articles/Egg-Hatch.html



from http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/procedures.html




there are a lot more... it's just a matter of googling

 

[yinepu]

usually a swollen chick will be so large that it can't properly turn and pip the shell.. they die in the shell simply because they can't get out .. weaken .. run out of air and die

for chicks that are swollen but have enough room they CAN get out on their own (like your chicks that hatched).. usually if they can hatch on their own their condition isn't so severe and they will survive just fine.. though occasionally some just seem to be the failure to thrive type of chicks... most of the time though they will be sticky chicks.. and without some help will die since the albumen acts like amber on a bug as you witnessed first hand

 

[Jungleexplorer]

again.. it's cause they were swollen up from the high humidity during incubation...
just so you can compare..

page 8 of the brinsea handbook has a diagram: http://www.brinsea.com/pdffiles/Brinsea_Handbook.pdf


also from http://guineafowlbirds.com/Guinea-Fowl-Articles/Egg-Hatch.html



from http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/resources/egg_to_chick/procedures.html




there are a lot more... it's just a matter of googling

The color diagram has a lot smaller air cell on day 18 compared to the pencil diagram. It may be the size of the 14th day, or even smaller, then the pencil diagram. There is not doubt about my eggs having too small of an air cell, what I am looking for is how big the air cell should normally be, and I am tempted to think the color diagram may be closer to accurate then the pencil. What do you think?