Mass mortality day 18-20

[Amurr]

So I had a lovely mix of ameracauna, cuckoo marans, and jersey giants in my incubator. On day 18 I went into lockdown with 22 viable eggs.
It’s day 22 for the incubator so normally I would have left them alone but I HAD A GUT FEELING that something wasn’t right. I hadn’t seen a pip or a hatch since beginning of day 21 (My ameracaunas always hatch a day early, ((2 days earlier than my marans))
So I opened one up, it was a loss. So I proceeded to open up all 17 inactive eggs. I had lost all of them.

Here’s what I observed after opening all of them-
All of the chicks seemed to be perfect. Good legs, straight beaks, no physical sign of abnormalities. All appear to have died between day 18 and day 21. One had pipped internally.

I used this same incubator last month and hatched 12 of 13 eggs.

The temperature and humidity stayed perfect.
I even candled less this time!!! The ONLY difference in the end process between this hatch and the last is that this time I put some of that shelf grip stuff in the bottom that everybody recommends using to avoid leg injuries. It was cut to fit beforehand, and laid down when I took the egg turner out on day 18.

Did the shelf mat mess me up? Could it have compromised the temperature or something of my eggs? Or could something else have done it? I’m not familiar with chicks dying literal hours before hatching.

 

[Araucana Nest]

So sorry. What a loss. The only thing I can think of is a temperature spike. What incubator do you?

 

[als77]

So I had a lovely mix of ameracauna, cuckoo marans, and jersey giants in my incubator. On day 18 I went into lockdown with 22 viable eggs.
It’s day 22 for the incubator so normally I would have left them alone but I HAD A GUT FEELING that something wasn’t right. I hadn’t seen a pip or a hatch since beginning of day 21 (My ameracaunas always hatch a day early, ((2 days earlier than my marans))
So I opened one up, it was a loss. So I proceeded to open up all 17 inactive eggs. I had lost all of them.

Here’s what I observed after opening all of them-
All of the chicks seemed to be perfect. Good legs, straight beaks, no physical sign of abnormalities. All appear to have died between day 18 and day 21. One had pipped internally.

I used this same incubator last month and hatched 12 of 13 eggs.

The temperature and humidity stayed perfect.
I even candled less this time!!! The ONLY difference in the end process between this hatch and the last is that this time I put some of that shelf grip stuff in the bottom that everybody recommends using to avoid leg injuries. It was cut to fit beforehand, and laid down when I took the egg turner out on day 18.

Did the shelf mat mess me up? Could it have compromised the temperature or something of my eggs? Or could something else have done it? I’m not familiar with chicks dying literal hours before hatching.

I managed to block air-flow in mine when I put down my liner (massive temp spikes, and probably also messed-up humidity - although the latter doesn't show in the picture)

Yours seems to be more porous than mine though, so wouldn't think you had the same issue - but if you have some extra thermometers/hygrometers you can try to add them to check

 

[Sally PB]

Nothing to add, other than I'm so sorry. And hugs.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I wonder maybe if there was a contaminant on the liner? Only thing I can think of. If it got moisr, it might leech into the egss

 

[Amurr]

So sorry. What a loss. The only thing I can think of is a temperature spike. What incubator do you?

It’s unbranded. This is the second hatch I’ve done with this particular machine. I didn’t have any problems the first time

 

[Amurr]

Nothing to add, other than I'm so sorry. And hugs.

Thank you. I’m absolutely devastated! They were so close!!! I totally understand that natural losses happen, but for so many to fail I know I did something wrong.