Fully developed chicks dying before hatch?! (pics included)

[kcdef]

Hey everyone.

Let me start out by saying that I'm new to hatching, but I've done my research, and I think I was doing mostly everything right.

I've had 2 pheasant eggs and 3 or 4 chicken eggs over the last few days (I had a couple batches in incubators set only a few days apart) that I let go a couple days extra past hatching date, then I did my research online on how to help a chick out of the egg, and they were all developed chicks that were dead! A couple of these eggs had actually pipped/started to zip even. I'm attaching a couple pictures of the dead chicks I've found.

Any advice or ideas on why they died/never hatched would be really appreciated!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

What was your humidity over the first 17 days? Do you monitor the air cells. What you are seeing is typical for humidity too high over the incubation period. The egg doesn't loose enough moisture and the chicks drown at hatch time. Despite the fact many manuals will give 50% recommendation for humidity, in most cases in normal elevations this is much too high. Many of us run 30-40% for incubation, raising 65-75% for hatch. I myself run 30% and if I can run dry I do. I monitor air cells to know when and how to adjust using this method: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity
It looks like one of the chicks was a nn? Sorry about the loss. It's never easy but especially as a beginner.