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yep, I followed the instructions in a link I found on here, with the salt and water and in the ziploc bag. It registered at 75% like the instructions said it should.
I am sorry you lost the little ones...here are my two cents worth
First..the first egg pic...that chick is upside down, if it pipped in that position, it most likely drowned. The second egg pic looks in better position...
In lockdown, ventilation is ubber important as well as keeping humidty nearer to 70%...75% is the highest allowable but not the recomended....65% is the low end. I always aim for 70% at lockdown.
The eggs would do better pointy end down, large end up in the carton until day 18. You are trying to recreate what mama hen does, and she is much better at rotating those eggs than we or machinery is. Lay them on their sides at lockdown.
Taking humidty up to 80% is most likely the cause of the second two passing....the first one had an entirely different issue...it was upside down.
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I am doing a staggered hatch with a separate hatcher and I started putting them in an egg carton large end up after the first two batches, but the second batch that is set to hatch has been on its side for the first weeks and is due next wednesday. I put them with the other ones in the carton with the large end up because they were taking up too much room on their sides. With my luck that probably killed them now. But the aircells are nice and at the large end like they are in the ones that have been large end up, so maybe putting them in the carton it will encourage them to have their heads up this time. I definitely wont have high expectations next week like I did this week.
please do not ever feel like a failure. In chickens, IMO a failure is a person who has a bad hatch and does not ask questions in order to learn maybe a better way. Or a person who just quits after a bad hatch. You are asking every possible question you can think of.. You are in no way a failure.
You ask a question that you do not know the answer to which is a grrrrrreat thing. Well intentioned people will mentor you with advise that maybe worked for them. maybe you will get 2 or 3 different answers. now you have 3 pathways to research that you did not have before. you should always always always research the answers that you recieve.
Incubation can be a tricky thing. What works for one person may not work for another depending on what region they live in. Climate plays a huge part in successful incubation. A person living in Phoenix will not do things the same as a person living in Seattle. It's trial and error. Just don't give up!
Is it possible that they weren't turned often enough and perhaps got stuck to the side of the egg, therefore weren't able to get into a decent hatch position. It's just a thought - no real experience myself, just thinking out loud so to speak.
I set batch after batch and have had problems with each one. I live in NM and it is dry as a bone here. I wanted to do a dry hatch but the humidity here can be as low as 13%. My last batch of eggs (23 eggs), I watched religiously. Kept my humidity as close to 40% as I could, that required all the troughs with water. At lock down I had 8 eggs, 5 that I KNOW where good to go, active embryos and all. It is day 23 and NOTHING!!! No pips, no cheeping... NOTHING I could only get my humidity up to 65% and that was with paper towels, a sponge and a brick. I kept them wet using a syringe dropping water through the vent holes.
I could be off one day for my hatch date, as a dummy I forgot to write on the calendar my set day, so I will give them another day or two. But WTH did I do now? I am so angry at myself, so disappointed, so bummed
I don't know what I did wrong and sometimes wonder if I should keep spending money on shipped eggs (cuz I can't find eggs around here). They sell only plain chicks here at the feed stores and only around Easter.
