Fourth failed hatch...what to do? *Dry Incubation Progress*

E.M. Silkies :

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1) My temps have been the best this last setting. Staying at 101 and humidity stayed between 50-60 the whole time. At lock down it's been just under 70.
2) I usually use an all purpose cleaner. Something with bleach. I take it outside scrub it, rinse it with the hose and let it air dry.
3) Would the bleach be doing that? Someone on here told me once that bleach was ok, because I was asking if the fumes would mess things up.
4)It is in a room with the door closed at all times. The only person who touches the bator is me when I'm checking temp and humidity. I have it sitting on a trunk so it's not shaky.
5)Again, I'm the only one who opens it. And that's as infrequently as possible.
6) All very healthy, I and my neighbor raise the birds so I know they are in good shape. I can't really speak for the eggs I had shipped.
7) They aren't handled often at all. I collect them and put them in the bator with bare hands. I usually candle a few throughout incubation and then candle right before lockdown.
8) Haha, yes, large side up! You're right ya never know!

your incubation humidity seems a bit high to me.. when you had chicks make it to hatch but die just before.. had they internally pipped?.. was there a lot of liquid inside the eggs?.. high humidity during incubation will cause bloated chicks.. possible drownings and small air cells.. all of which can kill a chick..
for incubation I aim for around 45% humidity.. but i am in a very dry area so mine is higher than someone who lives in an area with high relative humidity in their home​
 
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if all four hatches had poor success, i'd guess it's something with your bator/instruments. have you checked your thermometer/hygrometer to make sure they're correct? calibrating a hygrometer is pretty easy, thermometers are the bane of my existence.

i really recommend doing eggtopsies after you're sure about the others. it's sad, and hard, but the knowledge is invaluable in figuring out the problem. this website is very helpful for interpreting results (read through the whooooole thing) - http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

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only other thing i can think of would be to recommend trying dry incubation, especially if you live someplace that's somewhat humid generally. do a search on here, you'll find lots of posts.

good luck!
 
I'll try lower humidity next time. One of the chicks that tried to hatch did seem like it had too much liquid in it. I thought that it was because he tried to hatch too early. I was reading just today that someone was hatching and their humidity stayed right about 60% the whole time and they were at 70% at the hatch and trying to get it to go higher. I thought that seemed kind of high but it kind of reassured me....I'm not so reassured now.

Ugh, I feel like a bad chick mommy if I drowned them. I'm kind of heart sick right now.
 
We ALL make mistakes and errors--it is out biggest teacher. To not use what you have learned is the real tragedy. It's tough to try four hatchings and have little to show for it; I feel for you.

I think it's your humidity during incubation. Too high. Do you candle to look at the air cells? Or weigh the eggs to verify decrease in weight ( loss of moisture)? For the air cell to be the right size the wieght loss needs to be about 13%.

Try looking at CHookschicks page. SHe got me to try dry incubating and I hatched 50% the first time. She doesn't mention the actual %RH, but with some, ok a lot of reading I found that 40%RH is about right. THe main thing is the air cell development.

Ventilation is also important. Especially near the end and then more air flow is required during hatching. Little chicks needs lots of good air to breath.

Good luck. Do try again. When you're ready.
 
So I just read up on dry incubation and I think I'm going to try it. Humidity is not an issue here, I live in Georgia, but I'll test out the room that I'm incubating in and make sure it's alright. Anyone here have any experience with this? I read a really interesting article here on BYC but I'd love to hear from some of you on the subject.

MetalSmitten, great article. I haven't read the whole thing, still working on it. But so far a lot of helpful info.
 
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It is disheartening to only have a handful of chicks to show for four cycles. I do candle, but I'm still learning what I'm actually looking at. At this point I can really candle, look at the air sac and determine the size and changes its made. These four(unsuccessful) incubations are the only ones I have to my name. I'm definitely new to hatching and I still have a lot to learn. I'm planning to set another batch today. I'll try to keep an eye on the air sacs and see what I can learn.

I'm going to get this right!!! ....eventually. All I can do is try right?!
 
Ok here are some pics. I guess I'm a wimp but this is as far as I could get. It really broke my heart. I don't do death well....
I'm leaning towards the high humidity problem based on the pics but I also have an untrained eye for these things.

Here's the first. This one attempted to hatch. It had pipped externally.
64979_100_4526.jpg


This one also pipped externally. It looked the best to me. It is the most dry. It doesn't look like it drowned...
64979_100_4527.jpg


The third is two eggs. One that pipped externally and one that didn't Maybe it pipped internally, I'm not sure. They both look the same to me...very liquidy.
64979_100_4528.jpg
 
yuppers.. your incubation humidity was way too high... any idea what the relative humidity of the room where you run your incubator?

during the summer I have my windows open.. here the humidity runs around 23 to 26%.. so I go with a wetter incubation humidity (45%)
as the fall and winter approach I have to monitor the humidity in my home.. heaters in the winter will dry the air out.. but in the fall and spring if we have any wet weather I need to drop my humidity in the incubator accordingly.. sometimes for just a day or two.. sometimes for a week.. sometimes for the entire incubation.. I always monitor air cells and adjust the humidity depending on the size of the air cell and the relative humidity in the room where I incubate
 
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The humidity in the room is about 45%. Ok, I'm about to try again with lower humidity. Hopefully this will work out better.... I may have some more questions though.....
 
The humidity in the room is about 45%. Ok, I'm about to try again with lower humidity. Hopefully this will work out better.... I may have some more questions though.....

I have only done a few myself, and I am still learning. Even at 45% that may be high. Do you use a fan? The eggs dry out quicker using a fan. It's a balancing act between fan, ventilation and %RH. Whatever gets the egg to 13% weight loss at day 18.

Nice to see you trying again. GL​
 

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