Hatching problems, yolk unabsorbed

[NapoleanGoose]

My mom has been giving me updates about the eggs she's been trying to hatch out of my trio of Buff Dewlap Toulouse. Out of the 4 eggs that made it to lockdown on this last hatch, 2 made pips but both on the narrow side of the egg. Both goslings seemed to be working at the shells with very little distress and my mom said she assisted them some and didn't see any blood in the shells. Within a day of piping both just died. When my mom opened up the shell to see what was wrong both still had a ton of yolk on the egg and they were not entirely absorbed.

She lives in a very dry climate and had a very hard time keeping the humidity up. She didn't think it was too hot at any point either. A thunderstorm came through during the hatch, but I thought it wad a wives tale that they ruined hatches. Any ideas on what it could be? There's no more eggs in the incubator for this year, just some under a goose, but we wouldn't want to make the same mistake again.

also. She had them set air cell up all hatch, and before lockdown let them settle to their natural up position

 

[NapoleanGoose]

Sorry, I posted that from my phone at work. I wanted to make sure I posted it in the geese section. I know some hatching related problems can be genetic related so if nothing else was the case I wanted to make sure it didnt sound like something else.

I've always had a hard time hatching the Toulouse eggs living in a desert with under 16% humidity on a GOOD day. Never overly wet though. Usually a 1/2 - 3/4 hatch rate on shipped eggs though, so I think it's just where I live. Thank you to anyone who has any ideas to what it could have been. I have pictures, but they're kind of sad so I didn't post them. ):

 

[pete55]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your goslings dying so close to hatching. This is not so easy to answer as I don't have sufficient details about your incubation settings for your eggs.

It's unusual that the eggs were incubated vertically yet were breech positioned. It may well be that the eggs were lacking moisture with having a low environment humidity of 16%. What incubator were you using , what was the temp, humidity and turning cycle?

Often the main problem with Dewlap Toulouse is they wont lose adequate moisture even at low humidity and at present we incubate at around 25% but our other incubators at above 30% despite being run dry.

With Dewlaps the real key is to weigh the eggs when laid and monitor weight loss so you can set your incubator at an appropriate humidity level.

Just as a final point the yolk sack is large just before hatching and unlikely to be a contributing factor. As normal hatching proceeds it is drawn into the abdominal cavity so the gosling hatches with an internal supply of yolk as its initial nutrition source for a day or two.

I've included a link to our Incubation Guide which you may find useful.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/491013/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed

Best of luck with your other eggs.

Pete