Help... my chicks died in the egg, only 4 of them made it..

[nikoh84]

Hey.
Im a new mum of 4 miniature silkies... i incubated 13 eggs, 9 of them were fertile. All my eggs were moving the day of the hatching, but only 4 could get out.

I dont know what went wrong. Is that anything to do with the humudity? My incubator is automatic, with digital display. The temp. setting was 99.5 degrees all the time, the humudity 55 %,
and the last 3 days 75%. Opened the eggs after 23 days and 5 chick were dead inside. they were fully grown, and all wet, but never even tried to break the egg sell. Im having the 12 eggs again, waiting to go in the bator, but i dont wanna lose them this time. Please, please help....

 

[sonew123]

They could have drowned in the eggs:-( It happens I shoot for 65% humidity-also when the hatching begins the humidty jumps up too dont worry about that Sorry

MANY of us have experienced the same exact thing..

 

[LilChickCoop]

i am so sorry.....

 

[sheila3935]

I just hatched 22 out of 23 eggs. I didnt worry about the humidity too much first 18 days kept it about 40-45% day 18 upped it to 65-70% kept temps about 99.5 had a few little ups and downs. not much. Do you have a fan? if not needs to be a little higher on temps. I really dont know what I did to get such a great hatch. I think alot has to do with the quality of the eggs. Im sorry alot of them didnt make it, next time will be better

 

[nikoh84]

i have an incubator with fan... Anybody has any idea how long i have to keep the wee ones inside the house? They are in my 2 doors wardrobe at the moment.

i couldnt hang the brooding lamp anywhere else.

i know it is getting cold outside and i have to wait until they grown some fethers... i have their house ready... can i put them
out after 10 weeks, even if the temp. gonna be around 0 -1 C. They are my first ones and i hardly know anything about chickens... so im glad to to find this page and happy to read
all your advice. Thank you.

 

[The Lisser]

I think those of us who incubate have all had chicks that made it to lockdown but did not hatch. It could have been something wrong with them, not necessarily your fault. I have used the same temp/humidity and just hatched 7 silkies. Some of the eggs didn't make it but when I candled only one of them looked to be full sized - the others died sometime during development. Here is a link to help with diagnosing what may have gone wrong:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

Sorry for your loss.