I recently hatched eggs and only half of them hatched, the rest were fertilised but died sometime during the process. First off I need to say that these were eggs that had been shipped in the mail, so that may very well be the reason it didn't go too well, but I worry I may have made some mistakes myself.
I have a Brinsea incubator that is very accurate and reliable. No problems with temperature. I don't worry about humidity until lockdown and I know there are different opinions on this, but it's worked well in the past. The machine doesn't automatically turn the eggs and this time I've been more relaxed about it, turning only twice a day as opposed to three in the past. I've also not worried as much about getting them all the way around as long as I turned them some. I always wash my hands before doing this, but otherwise I've been more relaxed about it.
I candled at sometime around day 7-10 where I took out two eggs that were dead. Then I candled again at day 18. Now 2 more eggs were dead. I had them out of the incubator very briefly but wonder if maybe I've handled them too heavily? I don't shake them about or anything, of course. In the end 9 chicks hatched and 5 did not. I left the eggs two extra days before floating them and they were all dead. I didn't crack them open but assume they all had chicks in them. None had pipped though.
Another possible issue is that the chicks hatched on day 20, a day early, despite it never being too warm in the machine. So lockdown happened on day 18 and was maybe one day late and perhaps I disturbed them that way? None seemed to have problems getting out of the shells so I don't think humidity came on too late.
Any opinions on what might have gone wrong?
I have a Brinsea incubator that is very accurate and reliable. No problems with temperature. I don't worry about humidity until lockdown and I know there are different opinions on this, but it's worked well in the past. The machine doesn't automatically turn the eggs and this time I've been more relaxed about it, turning only twice a day as opposed to three in the past. I've also not worried as much about getting them all the way around as long as I turned them some. I always wash my hands before doing this, but otherwise I've been more relaxed about it.
I candled at sometime around day 7-10 where I took out two eggs that were dead. Then I candled again at day 18. Now 2 more eggs were dead. I had them out of the incubator very briefly but wonder if maybe I've handled them too heavily? I don't shake them about or anything, of course. In the end 9 chicks hatched and 5 did not. I left the eggs two extra days before floating them and they were all dead. I didn't crack them open but assume they all had chicks in them. None had pipped though.
Another possible issue is that the chicks hatched on day 20, a day early, despite it never being too warm in the machine. So lockdown happened on day 18 and was maybe one day late and perhaps I disturbed them that way? None seemed to have problems getting out of the shells so I don't think humidity came on too late.
Any opinions on what might have gone wrong?
