Help get to the bottom of what went wrong

[MissMonty]

I'm always trying to learn from my mistakes. On 1/2/21 I added 8 Ayam Cemani eggs to the incubator. They have low hatch rates compared to other breeds AND they were shipped. So lots working against me.

I candled around day 14, 2 had no development at all so I tossed those right away leaving 6.

I candled before lockdown and 2 look liked they quit growing a few days or so after I candled last, maybe a little longer. Eitherway they were tiny little embryos without any movement at that point. The other 4 looked good and I saw movement with the exception of 1. I wasn't sure about that one so I left it in with the group of 4 that were remaining.

Today is day 23 and I only had 1 egg hatch, or even pip for that matter. He is alive and doing well which is great.

So I candled the remaining 3 eggs that didn't hatch and listened to them. No sounds no movement. The 1 I questioned before lock down I could tell didn't grow since the last time I looked. The other two I noticed spots inside the egg. Any ideas what it could be?

I kept the humidity ~55% during the main incubating and temp 99.5F, once I hit lockdown its been at 70% humidity and 99.5F

I only opened the incubator a couple times to check the eggs the times I mentioned.

Here's photos of the 2 eggs that didn't hatch but developed all the way until lock down.

It most certainly is a bummer going from 8 eggs to only getting 1 chick, I have more Ayam Cemani eggs coming this week so I'd like to try to learn from my mistakes

 

[Anne02]

I'm always trying to learn from my mistakes. On 1/2/21 I added 8 Ayam Cemani eggs to the incubator. They have low hatch rates compared to other breeds AND they were shipped. So lots working against me.

I candled around day 14, 2 had no development at all so I tossed those right away leaving 6.

I candled before lockdown and 2 look liked they quit growing a few days or so after I candled last, maybe a little longer. Eitherway they were tiny little embryos without any movement at that point. The other 4 looked good and I saw movement with the exception of 1. I wasn't sure about that one so I left it in with the group of 4 that were remaining.

Today is day 23 and I only had 1 egg hatch, or even pip for that matter. He is alive and doing well which is great.

So I candled the remaining 3 eggs that didn't hatch and listened to them. No sounds no movement. The 1 I questioned before lock down I could tell didn't grow since the last time I looked. The other two I noticed spots inside the egg. Any ideas what it could be?

I kept the humidity ~55% during the main incubating and temp 99.5F, once I hit lockdown its been at 70% humidity and 99.5F

I only opened the incubator a couple times to check the eggs the times I mentioned.

Here's photos of the 2 eggs that didn't hatch but developed all the way until lock down.

It most certainly is a bummer going from 8 eggs to only getting 1 chick, I have more Ayam Cemani eggs coming this week so I'd like to try to learn from my mistakes

Did you try opening the eggs? It would be interesting to see what they look like inside. Maybe positioned wrong?

 

[JaeG]

Yes I agree with @Anne02 - it isn't unusual for shipped eggs to have a higher rate of malpositions. Shipping is really tough on eggs and it all depends on what kind of trip they've had to your place as to how successful your hatch will be.

the eggs that are coming have had a gentle trip and you get a better result next time around. I've had eggs from the same place on 2 separate occasions. One hatch was abysmal but the other was really good (except for the amount of cockerels I ended up with ) so it really does depend on how rough their trip was.

 

[Mellowmalt]

IT's your incubator. If you were to get an additional thermometer that you can place in there and run it at 99.5f I'm sure the thermometer will give you a different reading. They are also likely to overheat after leaving it open for too long. Not much you can do except get a better incubator. definetely invest in an additional digital thermometer if you do try with this one again. The inbuilt thermometer will be great at maintaining whatever temp you set it to but by the sounds of things it was maybe running a bit low. Also check different areas in the incubator. One side will most likely get warmer than another side. It is hard to create a comlpletly uniform temperature throughout and you wouldn't know this unless you placed several sensors in there at the same time to check.

 

[Yardmom]

Have you hatched eggs that were not shipped before? That would be a good indicator if your incubator and process are on target. Do some double checks with temperature and humidity. I know that the humidity indicators on incubators are not always accurate. I personally use a slightly lower humidity before lockdown. If all looks good it may be the eggs were shaken a bit much. Hope all goes well in your next hatch.