Float Test ?'s

[NCchicken]

So I have four polish eggs left still waiting to hatch out. No pips, no movement. Candled them and they are all very dark and look great. I did the float test. They all floated but no movement or sounds...at all. I assume this means they are dead, no? I have a genisis 1588 with the auto egg turner. For incubation my humidity was precisly at 60% and the temp was at 99.5 F. For lock down the humidity is at 70% and the temp was the same, which was 99.5 F. What do I do now? Today is day 23. I have 6 other polish eggs that hatched out just perfectly, early mind you, on day 20.

 

[Alexander]

I think that 60% is a lot.

It should be 40-45%.

 

[yinepu]

Did they float high or low?

if they floated high I would say they are bad..
if they floated low.. and your temps have remained pretty constant with no low fluctuations I would carefully make a hole in the air cell and see what's going on in there

if your humidity has been at 60% through the entire hatch I would think they drowned

 

[NCchicken]

OK, I will carefully put a hole in the air sac and see what is going on. My manual and numerous books I have read said that the humidity for incubating should be 60% and for lockdown it should be 70%. So I guess that is wrong?

It has a fan in there too to circulate the air.

As for the floating I could tell that they floated low, like the part that was out of the water was the air cell.

 

[NCchicken]

Well, I opened them all up. All of them are dead I do not know what happened but I have had at least one egg in all of my hatches do this. They make it to full term but don't pip or hatch out

But I have not had 4 do it out of 10! Obviously I am doing something wrong. Perhaps next hatch I will keep the humidity lower as you all suggested.

 

[yinepu]

yeah.. it's normally around 40-45% for incubation and 60% for lockdown.. unless you are doing a dry hatch.. some people have better luck with higher or lower humidity.. so it's not an exact science.. what may work for one person may not work for someone else

which is why I suggested just punching a hole in the air cell.. at this late date that won't kill them but will allow you to see if they have an internal pip, have drowned, are shrink wrapped or are alive or dead

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Do a search for "dry incubation" or "dry hatch" and try that... you may be one of the people that it works great for

 

[Arielle]

I tell my kids to take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. You have done a wonderful job. ANd you sound like you would like to continue hatching and work out the details.

From everything I have read, there needs to be a sufficiently large air cell for the chick to properly pip and hatch. When you candle 3 times during the incubation, you can compare the air cell size to the ideal picture and adjust the moisture levels. If you are at 60%, you are at the upper levels of all the recommendations I have read, so perhaps consider lowering the humidity. Try 50%, and compare at 7 days; decrease the % humidity again if need be.

I will go look for the web site that has good pictures to help guide you.


Congrats on your hatch!!!

 

[NCchicken]

Well, I should have taken photos of what they looked like when i punchured a hole in the air cell. But I have already buried them in my little chicken and egg graveyard. I though the air cells looked plenty big. The membrane over the chickens had not been punchured yet. They hadn't even attempted to pip out. Poor things. Did I drown them? Oh the thought! I think that next time I will take all of your recommendations and try to lower my humidty levels. Need to do some research on the dry hatching then. Sigh...deep breaths....

 

[WillowWoodsFarm]

Hi NC,
I was just reading your thread because I didnt want to just throw my eggs away without KNOWING if they were late bllomers or not. I floated a few of mine yesterday and then candled them a few hours later. It was hard to tell on a couple but easy to say that most of them were died. I ask my kids if they wanted to open them up with me but explained to them what we were going to see; mainly because I wanted to know what went wrong. So, we opened a few that I knew were definately dead and it was a fully form, ready to be hatched but they never broke through the air cell and wewre VERY wet inside so I think I drownded them! I reaD online, too, that the temo was supposed to be at 60% and by the time I found out on here that it sound have been alot lower, it was too late, they were going into lockdown :0( I did get 11 out of 29, though, so not a total loss. The only thing we can do now is learn from our mistakes! Good luck on your next hatch, if you deside to. I might go get some eggs today from the farm and try again :0)