Dead on day 20

[mstrrlm]

The only dumb question is one that is not asked. I had my most successful hatch so far, just the other day. It was my third try and of 34 eggs 5 hatched, but 16 went into lock down. 3 of them I didn't see movement so figured they were dead already. But I saw others move that I know didn't hatch. These were all my own eggs, I used sensor stuffed in water wiggler and was at 99.5 to 99.7 F and 71% humidity most of the time during lock down. Now forced air incubator on turner and off turner onto wire grate for lock down. Was my problem humidity also?

 

[MamaMarcy]

Just wanted to point out that candling is not sufficient to determine life in eggs that far along. Did they bleed when you cracked them?

Before opening the shell, if you suspect a demise you might try the float test beforehand. Even then, I would make the smallest of holes in the air cell end of the egg, then carefully chip away to look for signs of life vs "cracking it open."

Congrats on your 1 hatchling, and better luck next try! (it does get better)

 

[Faerytalefarm]

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If I don't show my ignorance I'll never learn.

And I'm sure I'm gonna feel like "duh" when I get the answer, but what is IMO?

Nothing wrong with asking questions. All the abbreviations can be confusing.

 

[Faerytalefarm]

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What was your humidity during incubation?

 

[aarissilkiesmooth]

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They are silkies.

 

[aarissilkiesmooth]

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What was your humidity during incubation?

Started low 70's, ended mostly in upper 60's.

 

[aarissilkiesmooth]

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You speak words of wisdom MamaMarcy. I did very carfully poke a small hole at top of egg then carefully pulled enough shell away to poke chick several times. After several gentle pokes over a few minutes, they were definitely gone. Even still I carefully peeled bits of shell at a time, continueing to nudge them, mostly out of denial that they could actually be gone. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I think I'll practice on some of my own wyandotte eggs before spending any more money on shipped silkie eggs, at least till I get a better handle on what I'm doing.

 

[aarissilkiesmooth]

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Before I spend any more on shipped eggs, I think I will take a page from your book and practice with my own eggs too, get a little more versed.

 

[Gypsy07]

Practicing with your own or with locally available eggs is a very sensible idea. Firstly, it saves you wasting money on expensive eggs while you're still learning how to incubate effectively, and secondly, once you do start incubating shipped eggs, it will give you a base line from which to compare. Shipped eggs almost always do worse than your own eggs, and if you learn to incubate your own eggs and get a good hatch rate, you'll be less dispirited with a poor hatch rate from the shipped eggs, as at least you'll know their failure to produce chicks isn't due to something wrong that you've done to them.

I'm pretty good at incubating now, and with my own eggs, even eggs up to 14 days old, I will usually get a 90%+ hatch rate. The last two hatches I did with shipped eggs I got 3 out of 18 (17%) and 4 out of 15 (26%). During these hatches, I had some of my own eggs in the same bator, and I hatched 3 out of 3 and then 2 out of 2 (100% both times). So I know the poor hatch rates weren't my fault!

 

[melodym78]

I have had so many lost chicks in the last months ( most mail order $$$$$) I was about to give up..seems like they made it to lock down then NOTHING! I opened them up on like day 26 making sure I gave them more time...come to find out it was the digital thermometer in BOTH my LG incubators. They showed temps were hanging around 99-100 degrees..when actually the temps were 104-106. Humidity was ok in both but I fried the poor babies. This week I got two of the thermometers from Incubator Warehouse. I also broke down and bought the Reptile incubator. Im gonna try one more time...with MY EGGS, new incubator for lockdown and new thermometers!