Need help please

[AsbillPoultry]

We filled our incubator with buff orps, silver laced Wyandottes, and australorps. Literally every egg hatched EXCEPT for any of the australorps. We candled and saw live babies in most of them. They just didn't hatch. These eggs are from our flock, and we use them for cooking and hatching and what not. We have noticed that the australorps give us a huge thick egg and sometimes they can be difficult to Crack open (for cooking) and alot of the times we have to actually tear the membrane in order to get the yolk out. They're almost like giant quail eggs. You can Crack them but they don't break open easily. Could this be a factor in them not hatching? Again, we candled and there were signs of life leading up to hatch day.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

We filled our incubator with buff orps, silver laced Wyandottes, and australorps. Literally every egg hatched EXCEPT for any of the australorps. We candled and saw live babies in most of them. They just didn't hatch. These eggs are from our flock, and we use them for cooking and hatching and what not. We have noticed that the australorps give us a huge thick egg and sometimes they can be difficult to Crack open (for cooking) and alot of the times we have to actually tear the membrane in order to get the yolk out. They're almost like giant quail eggs. You can Crack them but they don't break open easily. Could this be a factor in them not hatching? Again, we candled and there were signs of life leading up to hatch day.

It could definitely be a factor. Thicker shells are generally going to loose moisture slower than others, which will result in smaller air cells and higher chances of drowning.
I would do those eggs separately using a lower humidity and monitor the air cells.
What humidity did you run for the first 17 days of incubation for these?

 

[AsbillPoultry]

I didn't even think about that. I ran 55% humidity for the first 17 days, then took it up to 65% for the final ones.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I didn't even think about that. I ran 55% humidity for the first 17 days, then took it up to 65% for the final ones.

I would do that breed separately, run dry if your bator will stay above 25% dry (I aim for 30% for my standard eggs.) And then do lockdown as normal. If these don't hatch and you do eggtopsies (which I highly recommend if you can) look for overly large chicks, chicks that are malpositioned in that they never turned and very wet sticky chicks/exces fluid still in the shells. I would say at least candle and look at the air cells and see if they are significantly small for hatch time.
If you monitor your air cells at least days 7/14/18 you'll always have an idea if the humidity is working for your eggs and when, if or how you need to adjust.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

And

 

[AsbillPoultry]

Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate it. I'm filling the incubator again tonight, and this time I'll only do the australorps with the settings you have mentioned. Update in three weeks lol

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thank you so much, I greatly appreciate it. I'm filling the incubator again tonight, and this time I'll only do the australorps with the settings you have mentioned. Update in three weeks lol

Look foreward to updates. Do you need a link to the humidity article with the air cell pictorial or do you know all that?

 

[AsbillPoultry]

I'm familiar with it, but there's definitely room for improvement with it. So I would greatly appreciate the link.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I'm familiar with it, but there's definitely room for improvement with it. So I would greatly appreciate the link.

http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

 

[AsbillPoultry]

Today was hatch day, and I can't thank you enough. I checked the air cells on the appropriate days and everything went more than perfect. I ran humidity at 35% consistently, and temperature at 99.7 °F on our forced air incubator. On my first incubator, out of 24 eggs I hatched 23. On my 96 egg incubator I hatched 84. I will never forget the advice you gave me, and I have forwarded your advice to countless people. Thank you a million times and then some. You are ONE of the reasons why backyard chickens is so endearing to me!