Dont know what I am doing wrong??

[BullyBreedsRock]

I have tried to hatch some of my Hen's eggs twice and I do great up to the time they should pip. I have movement in the egg up to the last candle and sometime between the last candle and the time they should hatch they die! I have the temp between 99 and 101 degrees and the humidity is right there at 65%. the last time I tried, I picked up one of the eggs on day 20 and held it to my ear and could hear the chick pecking, should I have helped it out? are my shells to hard for them? Any help will be appreciated!
Thanks,
Dave

 

[chicmom]

Hi Dave,

What's your humidity rate during the incubation? I usually keep mine around 45, then raise it up to 65 for the lockdown. This is gross, but I usually open my unhatched eggs to see what's happened....For late deaths like that, two things come to mind.....Either the chick has had too much humidity during incubation, and they drown during lockdown, or they haven't had enough humidity, and they get shrinkwrapped and they die in the shell.

What kind of incubator do you have?

 

[Ridgerunner]

It could be many things. I'll just give you links that may be able to help you. You are looking at them and knwo what you are doing. I could only guess. These are for commercial operations as well as us, so some of the stuff may seem a bit weird, but there is a lot here that might help you.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

Florida Incubation Troubleshooting
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

One thing I don't think is mentioned in these. Do you have adequate ventilation? They are living animals and need to breathe oxygen. The older they get, the more oxygen they need. This is not that big a problem for most of us, and if it is a problem it is usually after they externally pip.

Another question. Do you keep the humidity at 65% the whole time? If so, the eggs are probably not losing enough moisture during incubation and the chick is drowning at internal pip.

Good luck!!! This can get frustrating. It is not always easy to figure out.

 

[BullyBreedsRock]

Thanks you two, I was keeping my humidity around 50 to 55% I guess that is a little high if you are saying 45%. I did bust one of the eggs open and the chick looked fully developed, and there did seem to be a lot of fluid in the egg. I am using an incubator that I made with directions off the internet. I do have holes drilled into the side behind the fan to draw in fresh air and holes at the other end too. I will check out the web sites... thanks again!

 

[crankster76]

chicks are drowning cause of high humidity. I have humidity at 30% and let the bator dry out to about 10 before I add water to bring it back to 30. on day 18 bring it to 75% for lockdown. I have near 100% hatch rate....GL

 

[BullyBreedsRock]

Crankster... do you hold that 75% for the last 3 days?