I wont be hatching any more till next spring (or maybe fall) but I just can't figure this out. My past three hatches were awful, losing over half of those that went into day 18. I blamed it on the unstable temps of my still air I was using for hatching. So this last batch I hatched I kept in the forced air preset bator, and expected great things...but no... same deal. Of 11 in there at day 18 (all alive) 4 hatched. Today I opened the remaining eggs up. All fully formed, all dead. one of the 7 was slushy goop and didnt seem quite all the way formed. Another one of the 7 had broke into the air sac a tiny bit, then died. The remaining five, had their beaks near the air sac, but had not broke into it. 4 or 5 of these 7 had air sacs that seemed larger than usual. Is this the cause of the deaths?? If so, I know that is caused by humidity (I think) but dont know if it is from too high or too low humidity. Any ideas whats going on here? Any questions I will try to answer. I feel like a genuine chicken murderer.
Sounds like humidity or poor air circulation. Eggs have to breath and if all the vent holes are closed up it will kill them.
Quote:I am sorry for you loss. This sounds like 2 of my 3 eggs I just hatched. THough mine were not shipped, they were saved from an opossum, so they could have had something happen when that happened, but I am curious to read the answers you get about this. Though they hadn't even moved their beak from under their wing to pip before they died. I will be interested to see what people think could have went wrong with your hatch so maybe it will help me find out what happened with mine too.