having Serious problems

[ladyomaha]

I candled and No movement, and listened and No movement, I did start at the Air Cell End and Broke Bits of the Shell, (they broke the Cell sack already). WhenI didnt see any movement, I continue to break away at the Shell carefully, and nothing, They were FULLY developed and should of hatched. So so SAD. Breaks my heart. But with ducks laying 3-4 eggs a day, I can Keep trying and maybe get it right!!!! Thanks for all your help and advice. I really appreciate it

 

[cmom]

I have an LG and have had many successful hatches in it. I now incubate in a cabinet incubator but still use my LG as a hatcher. Is your LG a still air or circulated air incubator? What is your temperature and humidity during incubation and at lockdown. Do you use a turner or do you hand turn the eggs?

I have had chicks take over 24hrs from pip to hatch. One thing to check if they do take a long time (around 24 hrs.) is to make sure they are not stuck. I have had a couple that died after pipping and I didn't realize they were stuck. This was when I first started hatching. Many people have said do not help under any circumstances as they will die. I have since helped. I usually put a cloth and paper towel on a heating pad and have a dish of warm water and q-tips or I use my fingertip to keep the membrane soften while breaking off the shell. If the chick has pipped and you can't see the beak, I would carefully peal the shell without tearing the membrane around the line the chick would normally zip. Is there a hole where the chick has penetrated the membrane? Also there are two membranes an outer membrane which usually look white and an inner clear membrane where the blood vessels are. You could pick the shell on both sides of the pip and see if you can see the beak and moisten the membrane with warm water with either your fingertip or a Q-tip. If you see the beak and the chick is alive make sure it can breathe you may have to poke a small hole in the membrane where the beak is then put it back into the incubator to let it hatch itself.

I usually wait at least 24 hrs from pip before helping the chick zip and if it is stuck then I may help it hatch. You have to be very careful as the blood vessels may still be in tact and not dried enough and the chick can bleed to death. After I have zipped the shell if the chick isn't stuck, put it back in the incubator to finish hatching. You may want to put the egg in a moist paper towel or mist the egg. There are times when I have had to assist the chick hatch too but I try not to if I don't have to.

Sometimes when they are about to hatch you won't see any movement when you candle the eggs. I don't know what your humidity has been during incubation but I use the dry method where I try to keep my humidity around 35% during incubation and raise it to around 75% at lockdown. My hatches are or near 100%.
Good luck...

 

[seminolewind]

Make sure your temp is as close to 100 degrees as possible. I use 100.5. Low humidity under 30%. Check your thermometer's accuracy , I usually have 2 thermometers in there, and one more for spot checks. Stop turning on day 18. Jack up your humidity to 60-70%. That should do it. Do not open the bator. Are your temps fluxuating? Throw a piece of bubble wrap loosley over the top of the bator. If it's styrofoam, that window is not insulated, and needs some bubble wrap or something to insulate it.

Don't wash the eggs. Save them at room temp, preferable on a shelf closest to the floor.
I get good hatches this way, my last 2 hatches were awful but they were from the same seller and another member bought from the same seller and also had real bad hatches. Before that, I get most of the eggs hatched.

If nothing works, get a silkie or two, they will go broody, put eggs underneath, and do nothing!

 

[dulcelife]

All this talk of help or no help has be wondering what I am going to face in a couple of weeks.

Geeeeeez.

 

[billiejo21]

I had a very similar hatch to yours this time. I had several eggs that internally pipped, but never externally pipped. I waited a couple of days after they were to hatch, candled and saw they were internally pipped, but saw no movement. I slowly chipped the shells away to find, beautifully formed chicks, internally pipped and dead! I have read everywhere on this board that say don't help your chicks, just let them be...but I can't help but think if I would have opened the bator and candled my eggs I would have known (after some time with no progression) that there was a problem! I too am using an LG, but just ordered a new cabinet incubator. I am recalibrating my hygrometer, as my suspicion is that despite good readings on it, my humidity was too low. I tried dry incubation this time, but I suspect that my humidity during incubation was too low and my inner membrane was too tough for the chicks to break through. I did end up having five out of 14 chicks hatch, which was obviously very lucky...all the rest were well formed, and most had absorbed their yolks...it's just a horrible feeling. I'd suggest you recalibrate your hygrometer, and double check your thermometer....that's what I'm doing today, before I reset eggs tomorrow!

Good luck in your future hatches...don't think of these as failures...but as lessons! Hang in there!!

 

[PoultryPedia]

Quote:
I am so, so sorry

So very hard. I'm glad you sought out help here & did all you did with the eggs, because you have the consolation of knowing you really tried to help these chicks.
Maybe some of the info you gathered by posting here will be of extra help if you run into trouble with a future hatch. It can be SO complicated to incubate...