Lockdown failure

[pennyJo1960]

Would need to see photos of the bator or know it's name brand

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok, it's really hard to determine what happened since you had some things that weren't working but while I don't have experience with that Incubator first hand, I have heard of others having issues with humidity when using it. Hopefully with a new calibrated thermometer and hygrometer you can regulate your hatch better. Good luck!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I didn’t do an eggtopsy because honestly I’m nervous to see the poor things lol but I will if we have anymore total losses because I don’t want to cause anymore babies harm.

I recently did a video on how to safely do an eggtopsy if you would like me to share it with you. It's of course sad to see a fully developed chick that didn't hatch but sometimes doing an eggtopsy is the only way to get answers.

 

[Mellowmalt]

If humidity was too low during the first 18 days the first time you would see any problems arising from this would be during day 18-21.

A high humidity is needed at day 18-21. I have to agree with the conclusions so far that drowning them was unlikely and it was more likely the dry conditions to start with that caused the problems. Just because the eggs developed well with a low humidity, that just indicates the eggs were good and a higher humidity would not have affected them badly in any way. Fact they didn't make it in the end indicates that they ran out of liquid reserves before they were due to hatch.

Please don't be too dissapointed and trust me when I tell you not to trust dry incubation, it can work, but it is not the miracle easy method everyone hopes for and causes far more problems for people starting out than it helps people. Ask yourself this, has it ever worked for you before? Did you get better results not doing a dry run?

One more thing to realize which might help you in future is that people that do do dry runs do it in still air incubators. That is one thing I have come to realize by now so that is important if someone recommends it works amazing for them they might be talking about their still air incubator versus your forced air.
A forced air incubator will dry eggs more than a still air incubator and running it dry runs the risk of drying the eggs so the chicks get stuck in the shell when they are due to hatch.

Another thing worth noting is that silkie eggs are a bit smaller than regular chicken eggs and thus hold less water and shouldn't be let to dry as much as a bigger egg with more water to lose.

candling the eggs every 3 days or so throughout is the best way to judge if things are running as they should or if humidity needs adjusting. I would recommend you look up pictures of air cell sizes throughout incubation to use as a guide for your own eggs in future.

 

[Whitechicks2020]

I recently did a video on how to safely do an eggtopsy if you would like me to share it with you. It's of course sad to see a fully developed chick that didn't hatch but sometimes doing an eggtopsy is the only way to get answers.

I would love to see it that would be great!

 

[Whitechicks2020]

If humidity was too low during the first 18 days the first time you would see any problems arising from this would be during day 18-21.

A high humidity is needed at day 18-21. I have to agree with the conclusions so far that drowning them was unlikely and it was more likely the dry conditions to start with that caused the problems. Just because the eggs developed well with a low humidity, that just indicates the eggs were good and a higher humidity would not have affected them badly in any way. Fact they didn't make it in the end indicates that they ran out of liquid reserves before they were due to hatch.

Please don't be too dissapointed and trust me when I tell you not to trust dry incubation, it can work, but it is not the miracle easy method everyone hopes for and causes far more problems for people starting out than it helps people. Ask yourself this, has it ever worked for you before? Did you get better results not doing a dry run?

One more thing to realize which might help you in future is that people that do do dry runs do it in still air incubators. That is one thing I have come to realize by now so that is important if someone recommends it works amazing for them they might be talking about their still air incubator versus your forced air.
A forced air incubator will dry eggs more than a still air incubator and running it dry runs the risk of drying the eggs so the chicks get stuck in the shell when they are due to hatch.

Another thing worth noting is that silkie eggs are a bit smaller than regular chicken eggs and thus hold less water and shouldn't be let to dry as much as a bigger egg with more water to lose.

candling the eggs every 3 days or so throughout is the best way to judge if things are running as they should or if humidity needs adjusting. I would recommend you look up pictures of air cell sizes throughout incubation to use as a guide for your own eggs in future.

Thank you so much! I think I will try a higher humidity this go around I have my new and improved hygrometer and have been testing it the last couple days with different levels of humidity before I place more eggs hoping to get at least 80% this hatch.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I would love to see it that would be great!