Diagnose my heartbreaking incubation/hatching problem(s)

[Bluegenes]

I have had the most heartbreaking hatches lately. They are all with shipped eggs and unfortunately I don't have any non-shipped eggs to compare them too as we just recently moved to the country and my only adult chickens are older hens (though I did just get a couple trios of birds so I may be able to test soon, if they are laying).

Hatch #1: I had 8 lemon cuckoo Oprington and 2 Pavlovskya eggs go into lockdown. 7 hatched, but the last two had to be helped out of the shell because they were all gummy with a golden/amber goo that acted like glue. One of these later died, due to getting trapped further from the heat in the incubator and being too weak to get where it was warmer. The chicks that did not need help hatching pipped on day 19, and hatched late day 20/early 21. The remaining eggs 2 were fully formed but didn't pup and one must have died a few days before lock down (it looked iffy when I put it in, but I've been wrong before so I put it in rather than toss it.
Totals:
10 eggs in lockdown
6 live chicks
1 dead chick after hatch
2 unpipped chicks in shell
1 pre-lockdown quitter

Hatch #2
7 Pavlovskya eggs went in lock down looking good.
Day 19/20 I had some external pips. I left them alone until day 22 when it was clear they couldn't hatch. I helpedthe three with external pips out. They were glued in so tight I had to literally put their bodies under warm running water the seperate them from the membrane/shell. They were covered in the same amber colored glue like substance that the later two chicks from the previous hatch were. Two of these chicks seem to be doing ok. 1 other one is still alive but hasn't started walking much yet and I expect I will probably lose her, though she seems to have quite the will to live. I did eggtoposies on the remain eggs and the totals were:
7 eggs in lock down
3 live chicks hatched with my assistance
2 fully formed chicks who never pipped
2 fully formed chicks who hadn't absorbed all their yolk.

Hatch #3
13 Euskal Oiloa eggs and 3 Swedish Flower eggs put in lock down.
Day 20 I had some pips, and Day 21 three chicks were out. Then nothing. Day 22 I had three more pips. I wait half a day to help them, and one died and I helped the other two hatch and those two seem to be doing well. Once again did Eggtoposies and this was the results:
16 eggs in lockdown
3 hatched unassisted
2 hatched with assistance
1 external pip that died before hatch
1 internal pip that died before hatch
1 chick fully formed formed with no skull (brain exposed)
3 fully formed chicks, no pip
2 fully formed chicks with unabsorbed yolk
3 chicks that died sometime prior to lockdown and were very icky (the Basque eggs were difficult to see in during candling)

So what is going wrong? I've narrowed it down to the temp being too high or too low, humidity too low (but then some eggs seemed to not lose enough liquid, so I don't know) or not turning enough? have been trying to keep the temp 99.3-9.6 range but the Hovabators seem to vary a bit more than I'd like.

I hate losing all these chicks right at the end!

Can anyone narrow down the problem for me?
Thanks!

 

[Bluegenes]

I wanted to add that all the eggs were incubated together in two Hovabators, and were put for lockdown in a Brinsea mini and the last hatch was in one of the Hovabators. Also, I had been using a candy thermometer I had tested in ice water earlier in the incubation. Later on I tested it against a human medical thermometer it it seems the candy thermometer is 2 degrees too high, so I adjusted down based on that. But what doesn't make sense it that the earlier hatches would have been exposed to the high temp for longer, but they hatched better than the later hatches, which doesn't make sense to me if that were the issue. Help me please! I have 5 dozen eggs going into lockdown in less than a week and I really want to help avoid this happening again if possible.

 

[Noellereagan]

Sticky chick.
From having the humidity too high days 1-18.

 

[Molpet]

https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8127.pdf

 

[Bluegenes]

Thanks! I've looked at a bunch of those troubleshooting charts, but they all give so many options of what could be wrong I can't figure out which one is right. And regarding sticky chic, yes I wondered that, but it also seems like they they got stuck in the shell was more like chicks that had dried down too much, so again contradictory solutions.

 

[Molpet]

Thanks! I've looked at a bunch of those troubleshooting charts, but they all give so many options of what could be wrong I can't figure out which one is right. And regarding sticky chic, yes I wondered that, but it also seems like they they got stuck in the shell was more like chicks that had dried down too much, so again contradictory solutions.

what is your humidity before and after lockdown?
I run around 35% before and 70% after

 

[chickens really]

@WVduckchick

 

[Bluegenes]

It's hard to say for sure on pre-lockdown humidity. Prior to lockdown they all shared the same incubators but we're at different stages of incubation. I think probabaly ranged from about 15%- 45% most the time. I've been having a hard time keeping humidity constant. In the Hovabators it's hard to tell if the wells are full and getting low and the one well your supposed to keep filled seems to make it too humid. Also at one point the eggs weren't losing enough liquid so I ran it dry (about 20%)for a bit to try to compensate... At lockdown the humidity was much more constant, usually about 75%-85%... Sometimes a bit higher when chicks we're hatching sometimes lower right after I opened it to get out the chicks that had been hatched awhile. But I didn't open it much. Any suggestions of how to keep the humidity more constant?

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

It's hard to say for sure on pre-lockdown humidity. Prior to lockdown they all shared the same incubators but we're at different stages of incubation. I think probabaly ranged from about 15%- 45% most the time. I've been having a hard time keeping humidity constant. In the Hovabators it's hard to tell if the wells are full and getting low and the one well your supposed to keep filled seems to make it too humid. Also at one point the eggs weren't losing enough liquid so I ran it dry (about 20%)for a bit to try to compensate... At lockdown the humidity was much more constant, usually about 75%-85%... Sometimes a bit higher when chicks we're hatching sometimes lower right after I opened it to get out the chicks that had been hatched awhile. But I didn't open it much. Any suggestions of how to keep the humidity more constant?

Hi - I run Hova Bators, too. From my experience (and I've encountered the goopy chick scenario), it does seem to suggest the humidity was too high during incubation. I know the manual says to fill well #1, but that would bring the humidity higher than the 35-45% range I like to incubate at until lockdown...so I fill #1 partly full (using a medical squeeze bottle like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/p/ACM-Economy-...le-Medical-Label-Tattoo-500ml-16oz/1463502263). I also put a little water into the center well. With a 1588, you can thread a rigid plastic straw down the vent holes and refill the channels (with the squeeze bottle) with opening the unit, too.

Another option is to use cut-up new sponges (like O-Cel-O) - if the humidity gets too high, you can pull one or more pieces out until it decreases to where you want it.

Are you using an independent hygrometer to verify humidity, too?

 

[WVduckchick]

I do not use Hovabators but usually the sticky ones, as others have said, comes from too high humidity.
Ventilation can also be a factor, as can inadequate turning of the eggs.