**Graphic Picture** How old were these chicks when they quit?

[Hens_And_Chicks]

My hatch finished yesterday - I had 2 eggs that were developed but did not pip. I listened to them but they did not make any noise at all. Today was day 22/23 - not exactly sure. I opened the air sac end and could tell the chicks were dead as there was no movement at all. I continued to open the egg and remove the membrane - I was wondering if someone with much more experience could look at this picture and give me an estimate of the chick's age? Did they die at 15 days? 18 days?

 

[Akane]

Real close to hatching. They probably just failed to pip the membrane when the others did. That would be after day 18. Most candle on day 17-18 before setting them for hatching to see how many are alive for hatching. Then you know how many just failed to hatch so you can troubleshoot easier.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

Was there anything I could have done or should have done differently? I did candle at 18 days and all the eggs looked identical - I placed them in a carton for hatching with the air sac end up, increased the humidity and left them alone.

What is to be learned from this or were the chicks not right?

 

[Farm Frenzy]

I'd say probably day 19 or 20...sorry.

 

[Akane]

There's usually 1 or 2 every hatch that just fail to get out. Probably a problem with the chicks. If a good portion of them fail to finish hatching though it's usually a humidity issue. Chicks are generally fairly hardly toward temp swings around that time unless it gets really hot (104f+) or stays cold for a long time. High humidity will result in drowning and you'll find eggs full of moisture and watery around the chicks. Low humidity makes the membrane too tough to break or dries the chick to the inside of the shell and you'll find chicks that look shrink wrapped in the end of the shell. Opening an incubator can also temporarily drop the humidity and if a chick is pipping the membrane then they may get stuck and die. However if it's been days since they died it can be hard to tell what the humidity was at the time they died. They could die from high humidity and then you open to remove chicks, drop the humidity, and dry the eggs so it looks like the humidity was low.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/Embryology/EmbryoPhotos.shtml

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

My humidity was not below 41% and not above 61%.

I honestly tried to get it higher than 61% but had no success. How do you get your humidity up to 70%? I put a wet sponge in bowl of water and then later added a wet folded up wash cloth.

I did not open the lid or bother the hatch after I set the eggs in the carton - eight of ten eggs pipped and zipped with no assistance of any kind. These two eggs just didn't do anything. Do the chicks absorb that much of the yolk in the last 24 hours?

If so, that is truly amazing!