High Temp ?

[CluckNDoodle]

I'm not sure how to tell if they were malpositioned, but they were not internally pipped as I had to break the membrane. I will say when I candled at lock down, I did think one was in a funny position as the air cell was kind of crooked, meaning not totally on the large end. I definitely saw movement on more than 6...more like 12. The air cells were dry, but there seemed to be fluid within the membrane...which I don't think is normal. It stayed about 40% or just under for the 1st 18 days...it did drop to about 15% twice, but only for a few hours each time. The last 3 days, it averaged 60%...just couldn't keep it at 65%. Does that help? A few friends have asked me to incubate for them, so I really want to understand this before committing.

The drawing down of the air cell that I think you're describing is actually supposed to happen. This is one of the early signs that the chick is getting ready to hatch. If there was a lot of sticky fluid where the chicks were this is something called "sticky chicks" that can be caused from too high of humidity during the early days of incubation. It prevents the chicks from being able to rotate properly to pip. There seems to be a higher likelihood of this happening with shipped eggs as well but I'm not entirely sure why.

I can't remember if you already said, but what incubator are you using and are you using a secondary calibrated thermometer and hygrometer?

 

[CT Coop]

These are Bielefelder eggs and I just found the following posted, which may be part of it. Some of my eggs were also torpedo shaped.

"My own birds didn't begin laying until 44 weeks of age, and while their eggs from the beginning were large to X-large in size, they also tend to be torpedo shaped with low hatching rates in spite of high fertility. Just as with those shipped eggs I received, many of the eggs begin to develop and then fizzle out by day 18 of incubation. I now plan to try hatching some under a broody hen to see if I get better results."

I have a GQC Sportsman cabinet incubator that is ~ 7 years old. I had not calibrated anything, so on day 8 I thought I'd better double check and borrowed a calibrated very expensive therm/hygro from the lab where I work. That's how I found the temp was 101.7, but humidity was ok. So I dropped temp and then checked daily through the hole in the side of the incy and was stable at 100 and humidity seemed ok.

There is so much to learn and research, so this is a great place to do it! Thank you!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

These are Bielefelder eggs and I just found the following posted, which may be part of it. Some of my eggs were also torpedo shaped.

"My own birds didn't begin laying until 44 weeks of age, and while their eggs from the beginning were large to X-large in size, they also tend to be torpedo shaped with low hatching rates in spite of high fertility. Just as with those shipped eggs I received, many of the eggs begin to develop and then fizzle out by day 18 of incubation. I now plan to try hatching some under a broody hen to see if I get better results."

I have a GQC Sportsman cabinet incubator that is ~ 7 years old. I had not calibrated anything, so on day 8 I thought I'd better double check and borrowed a calibrated very expensive therm/hygro from the lab where I work. That's how I found the temp was 101.7, but humidity was ok. So I dropped temp and then checked daily through the hole in the side of the incy and was stable at 100 and humidity seemed ok.

There is so much to learn and research, so this is a great place to do it! Thank you!

Oh how lucky that you have access to fancy thermometer/hygrometers from work!

I hadn't heard that about Bielefelders before but I haven't hatched any of the breed myself yet though in the past I have always been really picky about what eggs I put in my incubator. This month though, I am currently conducting an experiment with some undesirable hatching eggs, including a torpedo shaped egg, cracked egg that's repaired with wax, calcium build up egg, sticky egg, and porous eggs, so we'll see how things go with the hatch.

No matter how many times I hatch chicks I always feel like I learn something new on every hatch. I hope your next hatch goes flawlessly!

If you're curious and want to see how the torpedo egg turns out in this hatch I'll be updating it here.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-aka-the-undesirable-egg-experiment.1349529/

 

[CT Coop]

Wow very interesting and I’ll definitely check back...thanks again!