Eggs died right before hatch. Any ideas?

[Mrs.Puff]

Hi all-- So I have 7 (yes 7) broody hens right now (out of only 22 hens total) so I decided to let the first one to go broody hatch some eggs in the house, b/c it is WAY too cold and too early to hatch outside. She's a Japanese Bantam. So I have her in a small dog crate, and gave her four bantam eggs, each from a different hen. Three ended up being fertile, and were growing and wiggling when I candled them. Hatch date was today. So Saturday, I candled them again, and two were dead. One was an easter egger, and the other was a Japanese bantam egg. I figured that maybe the japanese one had that lethal gene which causes them to die (the Jappys that I have are all brother/sisters). So then this morning, when I went to check on her the last egg was dead too! I opened them all up, and each one had a feathered little chick in there, almost ready to go, but there was quite a bit of yolk sac still in there. I'm perplexed. I've had some die occasionally right before hatch, but never ALL of them.
Does anyone have some ideas? Could this be due to inbreeding or something?

 

[kathyinmo]

It could be many things. Nutrition is one. Do you feed your breeders extra?
Here is a good link ( Hatchability Problem Analysis) that may help...
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

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that is the most helpful link I have seen yet! thanks for sharing Kathy I wonder if they can make that a sticky at the top of this site, so many of my beginner questions just got answered!

 

[kathyinmo]

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I thought the same thing when I found it .... great link .... so I try to share it whenever I can!