Babies Still Drowning in their eggs - need help

[adrian]

I have had a lot of deaths occurring during or before hatch, lately. Not only with chickens and ducks, but with parrots as well. What just happened to me was a baby was pipping, had even externally pipped the shell, and was doing well. Then I moved it to the hatcher, which was very moist, and it moved its head from the normal hatching position and inhaled its own yolk.

When doing an eggtopsy, yolk was in its nostrils and down its throat. It was hatching so well, until I did what everyone says to do and moved it to a humid environment. It had lost enough weight during incubation and everything was FINE until that happened.

What happened? What went wrong? What has been going wrong? I think it is high humidity, even at hatching, that causes these deaths. And I am just hating it. I was pushed to keep humidity high because babies could get stuck or dehydrated, but when I kept humidity low, I never, ever lost babies like this. I used to get 100% hatches until I started to care about humidity.

Can anyone advise me about what to do?

PS: I also have another egg due to hatch in just a few days - what can I do to make its death less likely to occur? Anything at all? Just keep the humidity lower?

 

[Katy]

How high exactly are you keeping your humidity? You should be moving them about 3 days before they're due to hatch....not after they have already pipped.

 

[adrian]

I have been told to either move them before or after, and have tried both with the same results. They aspirate their own fluids, despite the eggs losing enough weight. My incubation humidity was fine this time around: about 45%. But it seems like just putting the egg into the hatcher killed it this time around. I am starting to despise humidity.

 

[Katy]

For my location I have good hatches running my humidity 30-35% for the first 18 days....them I bump it up to about 60%. Mine would all drown if I did 45 for those first 18 days. I've never seen it recommended to wait until they've externally pipped before you move them to the hatcher.

You say you had 100% hatches before you changed how you were doing things......Why then did you feel the need to change how you were incubating? If what you were doing was working why change it?

 

[adrian]

I don't know. I sometimes had to assist some babies because they were getting stuck. Regardless of that, they all survived. Now, however, they are all dying. I'd rather have some get stuck.

So, I am to lower the humidity?

 

[Katy]

What you're doing obviously is not working so if it were me, the first thing I would change is the humidity. It really varies from location to location and even the time of year and weather conditions what's going to work. There really isn't a "one size fits all" when it comes to incubating. There are some basic guidelines, but what works for one person might not work for someone else. Also If you're just using one humidity guage I'd suggest getting another to double check what your levels are. If you're only using one, it could be registering wrong.

 

[NatalieB]

I have been using the dry hatch method and it has worked well for me. Google dry hatch, if you can't find it pm me and I will send you a step by step. So aweful to loose chicks. Hope the next works better!

ETA: This is the link to dry hatching. https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html