Well, I hate to admit it even to myself, but I blew it. On the rare poultry group that I belong to, they stressed over and over about not opening the bator for ANY reason once you stop turning them at 18 days until ALL the chicks have hatched.
Well, since many of my friends said that they had hatched successfully and had opened the bator to take out dry chicks etc I figured it was OK.
I watched the humidity closely and the temp too.
Tonight I just knew that the last five eggs were gone, especially since the one that was cheeping last night was quiet, not a peep all day.
I cracked one and found a fully developed dead chick. Opened another, same thing. To make a long story short, my chicks were hatching fine until I took the two day olds out of the bator and had none hatch after that. All five were dead tonight.
I guess the next time I will listen to the experts and leave those chicks in the bator until every last one is hatched. I don't really understand it but it had a disastrous effect on my chicks.
Gina
two more weeks to next hatch which I will leave alone while they are hatching......