Chicks dead in shell. Please help

[MonicaJoy]

Hello. I’ve been incubating eggs for quite a while now and my last 2-3 bunches I have about 50% chicks dead in shell. They’re fully developed but haven’t even pipped or cracked the shell. It’s heartbreaking to see all those fully developed chicks but dead .
What is the perfect temperature and humidity? Or what am I doing wrong? I sanitize the incubator after each bunch

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hello!  Of the ones that hatch are they mostly girls or boys? Where do you get your eggs?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Hello. I’ve been incubating eggs for quite a while now and my last 2-3 bunches I have about 50% chicks dead in shell. They’re fully developed but haven’t even pipped or cracked the shell. It’s heartbreaking to see all those fully developed chicks but dead .
What is the perfect temperature and humidity? Or what am I doing wrong? I sanitize the incubator after each bunch

Sorry you are getting such results. What kind of incubator do you have? Is it still air or does it have a fan? Ideal temperature depends on what type of incubator you use, but generally speaking it’s 99.5 to 100°F.
Were the chicks that died internally pipped? If the chicks that are DIS are very wet when you crack the shell or there’s extra moisture in the egg then they likely could have drowned if the humidity is too high. In this case you may want to look at dry incubation. Many people have success with this method, depends on what the ambient temperature and humidity is in your environment.
What has your incubator temperature and humidity been during incubation? Do you have a salt tested hygrometer and make sure your thermometer is accurate? There are many threads here on BYC describing how to do so.
Are these your own chickens’ eggs or are they shipped? This can also play a role.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hello. I’ve been incubating eggs for quite a while now and my last 2-3 bunches I have about 50% chicks dead in shell. They’re fully developed but haven’t even pipped or cracked the shell. It’s heartbreaking to see all those fully developed chicks but dead .
What is the perfect temperature and humidity? Or what am I doing wrong? I sanitize the incubator after each bunch

Welcome to BYC!

Parent stock breed(s) (inbreeding/lethal genes), their age, and nutrition are my first questions? Next I question the turning practice and the temps and humidity used throughout.. inside which bator (forced or still air also brand), are all the vent plugs removed or open? How old are eggs before setting and stored at what temperature/humidity? Are those 50% viable chicks hatching on day 21?

My favorite technical hatching resource has possible causes of embryonic failure according to what day they quit starting around page 51.. (bookmark it for future use!)

https://www.hubbardbreeders.com/media/incubation_guideen__053407700_1525_26062017.pdf

 

[Ridgerunner]

You said you have noticed this in the last 2 or 3 hatches. That's enough for it to be consistent. If it were just one hatch it could easily be an anomaly. How many successful hatches did you have before this change?

A lot of different things can cause that. Probably the best thing I can do is give you these links and let you read them yourself. You are looking at them so maybe you can see something in these.

Incubation Troubleshooting - Incubation and Embryology - University of Illinois Extension

Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

Since it is the last few batches, are you doing anything differently? Is it the same incubators? In the same location? Any change in routine? Another possibility is that something has changed with the incubator or the instruments. Has a fan stopped working or are your instruments out of calibration.

What is the perfect temperature and humidity?

What type of incubator are you using, a forced air or a still air? If it has a fan the temperature should be the same anywhere in the incubator. It's recommended you use a temperature of 99.5 Fahrenheit (37.5 C). In a still air with no fan, warm air rises. It is very important where you take the temperature vertically. The recommended temperature for a still air is 101.5 F (38.6 C) taken at the top of the eggs.

There is no perfect humidity. For many different reasons different humidities work better for different people. The makes, models, and type of incubator can make a difference. The moisture level and temperature of the outside air can have an effect, even height above sea level. And there are differences in individual eggs. Different levels of porosity in the shell or thickess (consistency) of the egg material inside, especially the egg whites. How and now long the eggs are stored before incubation begins has an effect on how much moisture they need to lose during incubation. Nature was kind enough to give us a window of how much moisture needs to be lost but there are limits to that window. I don't know what humidity you were using in your successful hatches or how that was controlled.

One thought is that for some reason you are now incubating at a higher or lower humidity than you were before. Are the unhatched chicks big, soft, and mushy? Then maybe too high a humidity during incubation. If they are small and dry, especially if a membrane is wrapped around them, too low a humidity during incubation or at lockdown may be the culprit.

Another thought is the incubation temperature may be too low or too high. There is an acceptable window here too but you need to be in that window. If the ones that hatch are hatching late, the average incubating temperature is too low. If they are early it is likely too high.

There are other things that can cause them to die without pipping too. This is not always easy. Good luck!

 

[MonicaJoy]

During incubation I have the humidity at 50-55% and then the last 3 days I’d have humidity at 60-65%. Temperature at 99.8. My incubator has a fan.
And the shells that I opened had fully developed chicks a bit moist but not overly so.

 

[MonicaJoy]

Oh and someone asked how many successful hatching id done before this and I’m not sure. A few years. I keep the incubator going regularly. I’ve changed to a new bigger bator once but that was already before I started having this bad luck.
I use eggs from my own chickens and also occasionally buy locally to get new ones into the mix

 

[007Sean]

During incubation I have the humidity at 50-55% and then the last 3 days I’d have humidity at 60-65%. Temperature at 99.8. My incubator has a fan.
And the shells that I opened had fully developed chicks a bit moist but not overly so.

50 -55% Rh during the incubation process is too high, are you using the instruments sensors or do you have an independent, calibrated hygrometer? Almost all the 'cheap foam' incubators sensors are highly inaccurate and unreliable. 55 -60% Rh for the final 3 or 4 days in the incubation process is ok! You should try to have the %Rh around 30- 40% for the first 18 days of incubation.

 

[MonicaJoy]

50 -55% Rh during the incubation process is too high, are you using the instruments sensors or do you have an independent, calibrated hygrometer? Almost all the 'cheap foam' incubators sensors are highly inaccurate and unreliable. 55 -60% Rh for the final 3 or 4 days in the incubation process is ok! You should try to have the %Rh around 30- 40% for the first 18 days of incubation.

This is the bator I have. I just use the instruments sensors.
And I wonder then why the Manuals that come with the bator all say humidity should be 50-55. But I’ll have to try something different so that it works again

 

[007Sean]

Never trust the instruments sensors they are unreliable and very inaccurate. Get yourself an hygrometer or 2, salt test calibrate them, so you'll have a better idea of the real %Rh in the bator. I would also get several thermometers and calibrate them, as the temperature controllers on the 'cheap incubators' are also unreliable.

The instruction manual's that come with the instruments are usually not very good information or out dated.

A better option, would be get a temperature controller, like the Inkbird 306T.
The hygrometers you can get at Walmart for around $11, the temperature controller you can get from Amazon for around $31