fully formed dead babys

[arteacher]

15 silkie eggs and 3 babys hatched. I opened some of the others. The babys are fully formed but dead. The sac is NOT broke and air chamber is probably 1/3 of the egg. No pipping either. GQF sportsman incubator set at 100 and temp on shelf 99.3 to 99.8 Humidity is about 55%on petsmart hygrometer and GQF wetbulb shows 82 deg(the original water tray kept full) one top and one bottom vent open. The incubator is in my air conditioned office. I should have chicks everywhere! I just bought 14 peafowl eggs yesterday. Wish I could figure this out. Folks that use a sportsman talk to me. What do you do?


These eggs were shipped but fertility was great. If the environment is good enough for 3 to hatch why would the rest die in the same tray on the same shelf in the same incubator?

 

[Highlander]

I am having the same issue. Every hatch I have at least two thirds fully formed but never hatched. I am using an Rcom and by all accounts the conditions are perfect for hatching. I do not know what is going wrong. I think next time I will try a higher humidity throughout days 1-18 to see if that makes a difference. I hope you (and I!) get it figured out!

 

[Ceinwyn]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204
Usually if you rule out incubation errors, your looking at the health of the breeding flock.
Heredity or more likely diet.
Hope your hatches improve, I know its heartbreaking to put so much energy into this and have nothing to show for it at the end.

 

[cmom]

It's a mystery.

I have a Sportsman and my temp is around 99.5 to 100 with humidity around 50%. so far all my hatches have been good. I do have some eggs now and then that are fully formed chicks but never make it. I candle all of my eggs when I go into lock down.

 

[arteacher]

I may have found the problem! I have been using 2 spot check digital thermometers. One in the correct position on the sportsman and the other on the tray of eggs. They read 99.6-100 Since I have $140 in the peafowl eggs I bought I was tinkering with thermometers. I got out 2 of the gqf sportsman dial thermometers and tried them. They both said around 97 to 98. I put them both in ice water and calibrated them to 32 deg. Again, according to the dial thermometers I have been hatching at around 98 degrees. I have 5 or 6 chicks and dozens of dead embryos so I will try the dial thermometers. I raised the temperature and now my fingers are crossed.

I new it was not turning because it has an automatic turner
I was pretty sure there is enough air circulation because I used to get good hatches
I doubted it was humidity because people hatch eggs dry all the way up to 60%
It had to be tempeture! We will see

I have 2 gqf dial thermometers that read 100 that I calibrated. 2 spot checks still in incubator that read 100.8 and 101.5 and an egg o meter that reads 100.8


Anybody have any input I would love to hear it. If this works all the cheap digital thermometers are going in the trash.

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

Also calibrate your hygrometer. I thought mine was accurate until I hatched a bunch of rough navals and mushy chicks. Come to find out it was really off!

 

[LilMissPetie]

I don't trust the digital thermometers at all, just bought one yesterday. I add the turner and now the hygrometer I had wouldn't fit, so I went to Wal-Mart and got one of those digital thermometers with humidity on it too. The digital reads that inside the incubator right now is 96. 4 and the little paper one that came with the bator reads right on 101. Which before now the little paper one is what I would go by, with having 2 pretty successful hatches. The first I had 7/8 and the second 4/4. Yeah I would definitely not trust the digital.(but that could be just me) I am even starting to wonder how accurate it is on the humidity in there too. Well Good Luck

 

[1muttsfan]

Don't discount the fact that they were shipped as a cause. I have had 9 shipments of eggs this year with hatch rates ranging from 100% to 0 - and the high and low hatches in the bator at the same time, only difference was where they came from. About 1/3 of the non-hatchers were fully developed, just never pipped. I suspect that rough handling can cause problems even when the embryo develops.

 

[Highlander]

Quote:
this happens to me with shipped eggs, eggs from my own flock, eggs from my neighbours flock and it happens with ducks and with chickens.