AWFUL Hatch Second Time in a Row, Help!

[my sunwolf]

This is my second time hatching eggs and it went almost as badly as the first time. (The thread for my first hatch is here. Any chicks I helped out of the shells for this previous hatch died a few days later. The 7 that survived are lively little leghorn-type things, very healthy.)

I need SERIOUS help because something is going wrong with my hatches and I am receiving some NICE eggs this week in the mail and do not want to screw them up.

I set 23 eggs in the incubator March 9 (a Saturday) to hatch today: 9 bantams and 14 LF. The bantams were 10+ days old (from a farmer neighbor), the LF were at most 7 days old (from my hens, 5 of them in a pen with 1 roo).

Temp averaged 99.5˚F, accurate (I hope, my thermometers have all been calibrated and they read the same) incubator was set at 99.9˚F.

Humidity was between 30-45% from Day 1 to Day 18, then raised to between 50-65% from Day 18 onward.

Vent plug was out and halfway covered the vent hole.

Candled on Day 14 and noticed air cells were shrinking at a good pace.

Candled on Day 18 and threw out 5 LF that did not develop at all. When cracked open, they were completely infertile. Set 9 bantams and 9 LF into lockdown.

Day 19 I had an egg pip (it really drove me crazy). Had to help the little bugger hatch out, which means that I opened the incubator on Day 20--could this have "internally shrink wrapped" my eggs? I tried to mist as I opened it to help that one, but I've heard misting doesn't do much to help humidity in the long run. Humidity pretty much was spot on at 65% all during the hatch, which I ended today at Day 21 because the eggs were not moving or making sounds or pipping.

Day 21, I had 7 babies hatched, one of which I had to help, and one of which has spraddle leg so bad it just lies on its back and cries while it does the bike pedal. The other 6 appear healthy. 1 LF and 1 bantam I started to help out of their shells but hit blood. Neither has absorbed their yolk sac yet, the bantam is the only one that's internally pipped.

The other 9 eggs are very dead.

Here is the weird part: Some of the unhatched chicks, on eggtopsy, looked shrinkwrapped. One's air cell had grown huge. Others appeared drowned. None had internally pipped or absorbed their yolk sacs.

23 Eggs Set 3/9/13
18 Eggs Locked Down 3/27/13
7 Chicks Alive 3/30/13

7 Chicks out of 23 Eggs is a 30% hatch rate... in my book, this is still awful. I'm really looking for 50%.

Any ideas on what went wrong this time?

 

[yo burrill]

Sounds like your humidity was still a little low. I run mine at 45%-50% then 75% at lockdown. I have a thermometer that tracks high and low temp. I thought it was running fine till I could track it then found I was having temp spikes and loosing eggs.

 

[my sunwolf]

Sounds like your humidity was still a little low. I run mine at 45%-50% then 75% at lockdown. I have a thermometer that tracks high and low temp. I thought it was running fine till I could track it then found I was having temp spikes and loosing eggs.

Thank you so much for your reply!

I've still been trying to ascribe to the "dry hatch" method, but it doesn't seem to be working at all. Maybe you're right that I need to up the humidity. That still doesn't explain to me why a bunch of the dead eggs looked drowned (very watery).

I don't think there are temp spikes as I check it pretty often, and the Genesis does a pretty good job of keeping the temp right where it needs to be. It definitely looks like it must be a humidity problem.

 

[my sunwolf]

Definitely going to conclude that it was low humidity in the room coupled with opening the bator on Day 20 to help that first pipper.

 

[my sunwolf]

Help, this same kind of thing just happened to me for the 3rd time, but I did not open the incubator until the end of Day 21. Each batch of eggs has been from a different source. I have no idea what's going wrong.

Anyone have any ideas other than humidity or bad health of breeding stock??

 

[5 Acre Rooster]

Might depend on the supplier as well as transporter. If they are mail carried your postal route may have a disgruntle employee. If the packages are not marked correctly they could be getting X-rayed or just rough handled. Those that didn't hatch did you eggtopsy them? Are you letting them settle for 24 hrs before putting into bator? could be a number of things not just breeders or their birds.

 

[roach56]

I agree low humidity. I am new to poultry but have hatched many exotic species.

 

[my sunwolf]

Thank you both for your replies!

Might depend on the supplier as well as transporter. If they are mail carried your postal route may have a disgruntle employee. If the packages are not marked correctly they could be getting X-rayed or just rough handled. Those that didn't hatch did you eggtopsy them? Are you letting them settle for 24 hrs before putting into bator? could be a number of things not just breeders or their birds.

The first two sets of eggs were not shipped, one I carried back to the farm myself, the other I hand gathered from my own farm. Of the first eggs I transported myself, I let them sit 24hrs before hatching just in case I'd jostled them (though only had one saddle air cell, all others were perfect). Of the eggs from my own farm, I let those sit at 55-60˚F (didn't have a 50˚F room) and rotated them 1x or 2x a day for 6 days until I collected enough to set.

The eggtopsies have shown that the eggs were either infertile or developed to Day 17 or 18 and then died as fully formed chicks without absorbing their yolk sacs. The few that stay alive until Day 21 often have trouble emerging from their shells.

I agree low humidity. I am new to poultry but have hatched many exotic species.

I was thinking this as well, so I upped humidity with each attempt to hatch eggs (with short, occasional drops or spikes).

The first batch was 20-40% from Day 1 to Day 18 and 50-65% from Day 18 to hatch.

The second batch was 30-50% from Day 1 to Day 18 and 60-70% from Day 18 to hatch.

The third batch was 40-50% from Day 1 to Day 18 and 60-70% from Day 18 to hatch.

 

[loopy12]

What is your incubator? Does it have a fan?
I'm wondering if you have hot and cold spots and if humidity is not the same throughout...because of some looking drowned, others shrink wrapped, and also the really early pipper could've been in a hot spot. Maybe check your hygrometer too and even consider getting a second hygrometer and put it in a different position.

Personally I think I would have left the first pip to its own defences because helping it might sacrifice the rest of the eggs.