I've been incubating in a cabinet incubator. I've been setting the eggs in egg cartons and tipping up one end to turn them. I thought that having the lid on the carton would keep in too much moisture, so I cut the tops of the cartons off and nested the cartons inside the tops for extra stability. I am having mushy chicks with lots of water under their skins, rough navels plus high mortality the day before they are supposed to hatch and after hatch. The humidity gauge has read 30-40% during incubation, but apparently that is too high. Also, I was thinking that the eggs may be too dry around the air sac and the membranes don't soften up quickly enough from higher humidity in the hatcher, making it impossible for some of the chicks to get out. I was thinking that with the hatch coming up in the next few days I would put a wet paper towel on top of the eggs on day 17 in the hatcher and then take the towel off for the remaining days, in hopes of softening up that membrane. I can see in the eggs that not enough fluid has evaporated. I wonder if I could puncture the egg somehow and get out some of that liquid, maybe with a needle and syringe? I probably won't try that this time, though. It is so sad to have 22 eggs develop until day 16-19 and then only end up with 3 live chicks at the end of it all. I should have a very noisy hatching room today, but only one of them makes much noise. And I think that's because he lost his entire yolk sac due to a rough navel, so he's hungry. He's doing okay, though. I think he'll make it. At 3 days old he's running around and eating. This just sucks though. I thought I would be making money at hatching, but I"m just killing chicks. I'm not near ready to give up, though. I will figure this out.
