bad hatch results...why?

[janelle18]

I had 42 eggs in my incubator. I pulled out 6 going into lockdown. I had 9 hatch early (before day 21) mostly on day 20. I probably have 25 eggs that contain fully formed chicks but never hatched. What could have caused this?! I am hatching again right away and don't want the same results..
I usually keep my incuabator at 99.5-100.0 ( which accounts for the earlier hatch). My humidity is usually about 30 degrees for the first 17 days then i bump it to 70 for lockdown ( and once they start hatching it gets up to about 83. any ideas? I used this same method last time around and had very good results

 

[Impress]

Did you clean your incubator between hatches? Did the air cells at lockdown look like they lost enough weight? Are these shipped eggs, or eggs from the same birds you hatched before?

 

[janelle18]

Did you clean your incubator between hatches? Did the air cells at lockdown look like they lost enough weight? Are these shipped eggs, or eggs from the same birds you hatched before?

Yes I clean my incubator with bleach and let it dry for a couple days before setting. These are my own birds. The air cells look fine in them would a picture of one of the dead chicks help?

 

[Impress]

An eggtopsy picture is always helpful. Bleach is pretty darn potent I wouldn't use bleach. I use vinegar.

 

[janelle18]

 

[Impress]

Weird, very late quitters. Hmm. I am baffled.

 

[janelle18]

would a temperature spike have caused this? if it happened overnight there would have been no way of me knowing.

 

[Tina12]

I agree with Impress. I wouldn't use bleach either. It is very powerful.

 

[cameronfarm]

With late stage development loses and the early hatches I would suspect high temperatures. Are you using a certified thermometer? Have you calibrated it? If bleach was the culprit it would explain the loses as it can be toxic but not the early hatches. When sterilizing with bleach it should be at 200ppm. Cleaning should be done with a good anti-bacterial soap.

 

[Quyen Le]

Change chicken feed to higher protein and get 100% hatch, 2 times on a row.