Eggs keep dying before pipping~please help newbie!

[judsenn]

Well Hello neighbor...another Wisconsinite. I'm on my first incubating and hatching experience, I'm going crazy over here! I have 4 turkey eggs in the bator due to hatch YESTERDAY,
I'm still hoping for a positive outcome, but every hour that goes by with no progress I start to lose hope. It's hard wrapping my head around the fact that all the lil turkeys inside the eggs were moving just 3 days ago before lockdown and now I'm facing a possible death from one or ALL of them. I'm kinda sick over it.

My 2 eggs died AGAIN! I am ready to quit....once again, dead in shell before pipping. My girls are laying well but I'm not sure I even want to pursue incubating anymore. Wish I had a broody hen

As far as turning goes, I turn once in the a.m., once after work and once before bed. I don't think the turning is the issue either. I am considering trying a DRY dry hatch with no water at all until lockdown but I think my bator will be around 11-20% humidity so not sure....

Anyone ever heard of lethal genes? I JUST DON'T GET IT!! WHY don't they hatch?!

 

[yinepu]

Well Hello neighbor...another Wisconsinite. I'm on my first incubating and hatching experience, I'm going crazy over here! I have 4 turkey eggs in the bator due to hatch YESTERDAY,
I'm still hoping for a positive outcome, but every hour that goes by with no progress I start to lose hope. It's hard wrapping my head around the fact that all the lil turkeys inside the eggs were moving just 3 days ago before lockdown and now I'm facing a possible death from one or ALL of them. I'm kinda sick over it.

have you candled them today for internal pips?..
also what's your temp and humidity?

 

[judsenn]

Well if there is a external pip in the one egg I thought its suggested not to open the bator. I'd LOVE to candle them, just so i stop worrying so much but I'm concerned about the one getting shrinkwrapped. My temp always stayed pretty consistent throughout the first 25 days at 99-100 degrees, although the first night of lockdown the temp dropped down to 93 during the night. Humidity stayed between 40-50 %. Currently right now the temp is at 98.5 and hum is 65%

 

[yinepu]

Well if there is a external pip in the one egg I thought its suggested not to open the bator. I'd LOVE to candle them, just so i stop worrying so much but I'm concerned about the one getting shrinkwrapped. My temp always stayed pretty consistent throughout the first 25 days at 99-100 degrees, although the first night of lockdown the temp dropped down to 93 during the night. Humidity stayed between 40-50 %. Currently right now the temp is at 98.5 and hum is 65%

pull them long enough to do a quick candle to make sure they are still alive.. then keep your temp at 98 to 98.5.. try to raise that humidity up a bit though.. 80% would be great

if they are still kicking you should have some hatch soon..

 

[yinepu]

you can open the bator.. they suggest keeping it closed for newbies.. but trust me.. the eggs will be fine especially if there aren't any external pips.. what you want to look for are INTERNAL pips.. where you can see them moving around in the air cell or see their beaks in the air cell
if you have internal pips then keep the humidity high and the temp down in the 98 - 98.5 range (at hatch) for turkeys.. you'll find that they hatch much better doing it that way

 

[judsenn]

OKay, I have them in my bathroom off from my bedroom, so I'll go start the shower to riase the humidity and I'll candle quick, I'll update shortly.

 

[judsenn]

Alright, 3 of the 4 are NOT moving at all. Egg #2 is moving around and I even heard it CHIRP!!! Problem is... there is a small EXternal pip!!!! I rushed and put it back into the bator...did I harm it now that it's been out???? Do I help it out??? Oh jeez

 

[mondotomhead]

Jedsenn:

First calm down

I know its very exciting. You didn't harm the pipped egg. Just make sure your humidity is up and DON'T HELP IT! First you see an external pip, then they will start zipping. Sometimes this takes a little while so don't worry.

I've only hatched once (10 of 11 hatched!) so I'm no expert but this is my experience. Those 3 that are not moving may NOT be dead. They could be sleeping. I never saw movement in any of my eggs. Please just wait. Of the 10 that hatched one was at least 12 hours earlier than the other 9. The whole hatch took over 24 hours.

 

[MammasBabies]

I had 9 out of 13 hatch fine my last hatch. Of the four that did not hatch, one was not even viable. The other 3 were like your eggtopsies....so I am adding less water this time and am going to try Chookschick's idea of papertowels for lockdown. I agree with guy above too....less handling of eggs. I only open mine to turn them twice a day. Last days only open if water is gone or they hatch! I removed each chick as it popped out of its shell and closed incubater again as soon as possible. I "imprint" my chicks, so I wrapped them loosely in a dry washcloth when I retrieved them from incubator and held them for next hour near my heart...talking and clucking to them. In past this has made for very friendly chickens that love attention.

 

[yinepu]

Alright, 3 of the 4 are NOT moving at all. Egg #2 is moving around and I even heard it CHIRP!!! Problem is... there is a small EXternal pip!!!! I rushed and put it back into the bator...did I harm it now that it's been out???? Do I help it out??? Oh jeez

he'll be fine.. you didn't hurt him.. like mondotomhead said the others may be sleeping.. but make a mental note that they may also be dead.. so for now just keep an eye on them


most people are so paranoid that their chicks will suddenly drop dead if the bator is open for a split second.. or if they have to take an egg out to candle them.. but I have been hatching out eggs all my life and come from a long line of poultry people and honestly.. it's not that hard to hatch out eggs.. people just get so stressed out and make things harder than they have to be

right now I have 4 bators running... one with quail eggs.. one with a mix of quail, turkey and chicken eggs.. one with turkey and chicken eggs.. and one with emu eggs...
i do staggered hatches all the time and have bators running year round and end up with 90 to 100% hatch rates on my eggs.. lower on shipped eggs
we hatch out quail, chickens, turkeys, ducks, muscovys and emus... if it were as hard as people make it out to be I would have quit 50 years ago!