Lots of early quitters

[BlueShadow]

I know this will be long, but I will try to be brief:
I set 33 eggs
14 were shipped, they spent 2 days in transit
19 were from a local friend (thanks @WthrLady !!) BUT we were in a major car accident on the way home. Several eggs cracked, and most of the rest had some yolk on them. I washed them clean as best I could, gently scrubbing with wet paper towel and set the intact eggs.

All air cells stayed at the large end, but most air cells were jiggly.

Days 1-3 of incubation: Old styrofoam Hovabator, incubated upright, no turning
Days 4-6: Hovabator, incubated upright, with turning (they are in a turner but the motor doesn't work, so I manually adjust it 3-5 times a day, every 4-10 hours as I remember)
Days 7-10: Eggs moved to my new NR360 because I thought it would be more reliable than my old Hovabator which needs frequent adjustments to deal with weather changes and requires manual turning HAH I was about to learn a lesson about shiny new incubators.
(well, the best looking 21 eggs were moved to NR360... the others remained in the Hovabator). I had a new thermometer/hygrometer in the NR360 which I checked against 4 other thermometers during the week in the Hovabator and one of those thermometers I have used successfully for 4 hatches so I trust it. The new thermometer was about 0.5 degree higher than the old trusted thermometer. Old trusted thermometer unfortunately was too big to fit in the NR360 or I would have used it. New thermometer is ThermoPro brand but like Govee it does continuous monitoring and reports to my phone.
Candle day 7, 11 eggs showed no development. I did crack them open and most (8, I think) had broken yolks.
Incubation Day 10, By now, I was VERY UNHAPPY about temperature fluctuation in the NR360. It was bouncing around +/- 1.5 degree in the outer ring, +/- 0.75 degree in the inner ring. I had to adjust the settings several times to keep temperature around 99.5, despite having an insulating towel wrapped around it. And no matter what, the outer ring was always cooler than the inner ring.
And by day 11 I noticed the turner wasn't working.
All eggs back to old Hovabator, NR360 back to TSC
Incubation Days 11-17, Hovabator, incubated in upright turner, with turning
Candle tonight, day 17, I pulled out another 10 eggs for early death. Small chick shadows, no blood vessels visible, one has a blood ring. I haven't cracked them open yet - waiting for daylight to do that outside - but the size of the shadows ranges from pea to grape, so I am guessing death ranging days 7-11, which is very suspiciously overlapping with their time in the NR360

So. I know nothing about this incubation was ideal from the start
But what are some causes of early quitters?

Rough handling before incubation? The crazy temperature fluctuation of the NR360? Being turned on their side after the rough handling? The turner stopping? Infection from the yolk contamination (both clean shipped eggs and eggs from the accident had early quitters, so I don't think this is the most likely reason)?

Oh yes. And just in case you are curious. Even though I have to check temperature multiple times a day in the Hovabator, and I have adjusted it a couple times because it fluctuates with the weather, the Hovabator's temperature remains within a 1 degree range (so +/- 0.5 degrees), which is better than the NR360. Obviously it changes more when I open it to candle eggs or refill water, but I only crack it open about an inch for a few seconds when I manually adjust the turner, so turning doesn't affect temperature noticeably.

 

[Ridgerunner]

But what are some causes of early quitters?

These trouble shooting guides may give you some ideas as to why eggs don't start developing.

Incubation Troubleshooting - Incubation and Embryology - University of Illinois Extension

Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

Rough handling before incubation?

That's a problem with shipped eggs, you don't know how much they are shaken. One time I brought 30 eggs home on some rough country dirt roads and had them sitting on the floorboard, not cushioned on the seat. They were shaken so badly only 10 hatched. The majority of the other eggs did not even start to develop. Especially with those 8 broken yolks I suspect that car wreck was a huge problem for your eggs.

The crazy temperature fluctuation of the NR360?

That certainly did not help. It sounds like you were not sure that the temperature in the NR360 was ever that correct. Temperature fluctuations are hard on them anyway, even if they don't get to a killing range. Also important is how long were they at the extremes of those fluctuations. It takes a while for the interior of the egg where the embryo is to change temperatures when the air temperatures change. That's why short temperature spikes are not always deadly. But from what you said, those were probably a contributing factor.

Being turned on their side after the rough handling?

I don't think so.

The turner stopping?

Day 11, that late in incubation, lack of turning should not be that big of a problem.. They were close to the point they didn't really need to be turned anyway. If it did create a problem it would only be a very few of the and problems would show up later in incubation.

Infection from the yolk contamination (both clean shipped eggs and eggs from the accident had early quitters, so I don't think this is the most likely reason)?

If you smelled the rotten egg small and had a rotten egg, this could have been a cause. But you didn't. So not your problem.

Oh yes. And just in case you are curious. Even though I have to check temperature multiple times a day in the Hovabator, and I have adjusted it a couple times because it fluctuates with the weather, the Hovabator's temperature remains within a 1 degree range (so +/- 0.5 degrees), which is better than the NR360. Obviously it changes more when I open it to candle eggs or refill water, but I only crack it open about an inch for a few seconds when I manually adjust the turner, so turning doesn't affect temperature noticeably.

With how long it takes for the interior of the egg to change temperature, opening it wide and losing all the heat won't be a problem.

Yours is one of the worst I've read about on here, worst than any of mine, but many of is have had hatches that just did not go right, both with incubators and broody hens.

 

[BlueShadow]

Thanks for your reply, so much good information there. I looked over the links you sent. Especially with your story about driving eggs home on dirt road (which in fact is where the accident occurred), the links you sent agree that rough handling is the most likely reason for so many eggs to not begin developing when both of my sources typically have fertile eggs.

As for the NR360 temperature, I did run it for 2 days before putting the eggs in. I needed to turn up the thermostat on it by 1.5 degrees to get the thermometers inside to read 99.5. But I wonder if running it empty isn't quite the same as with eggs in because after the eggs were in, I had to adjust the temperature setting to 100.0 to get the average temp to seem about right. However, the temperature was bouncing around a lot as the thermometer traveled around the incubator, it recorded temps between 98 and 101. As you noted, I wasn't too concerned about those shorter spikes because it takes the eggs awhile to adjust to the temperature, but it did make it extremely difficult to know what the average temperature was with any accuracy. Perhaps it was averaging higher than I thought. Those links suggested incubation temperature too high could cause the problems I observed.

Thanks for your thoughts. This has been a discouraging year for hatching. My first hatch didn't go well either, because my broody wasn't as broody as I thought. I wanted to learn what might have been the problem so I can do better next time.