Please help me: Every chick dying during lockdown

[spatulagirl]

I am on hatch #4 and thought I was doing everything right but it looks as though they are all dead so obviously I am doing something wrong. I went into lockdown Monday afternoon with 25 alive eggs and 4 questionable ones. I am using a cheap LG still air incubator and hand turning everything (the same as a friend who lives 20 minutes away and gets 100% hatches).

I kept humidity at 35-45% during the hatch with a little square dish of water in the incubator. The temp was steady at 99-100, never lower than 97 or hotter than 102. I hand turned 3-5 times a day with clean hands. On lockdown I filled the bottom trays with water, laid out paper towel and awaited my hatch.

I had a baby hatch out Tuesday afternoon on the end of Day 18 and a pipped egg. I pulled the baby out Wednesday morning super quick and it died half an hour later (it looked fine). The pipped egg never hatched and after 12 hours I was sure it was dead so I pulled it out. It was dead with an unclosed and huge navel.

I have no other pipped eggs and just candled a few. They look dead, I see no movement or even veins.

I will float test tomorrow and then do an egg-topsy if they are all dead. What am I looking for?

I need to know why they are dying on me during lockdown. Every hatch has been the same. I have only successully hatched four eggs out of many. And on hatch #2 one died from mushy navel, the other is still alive.Everything else that was alive died. Hatch #3 was partly under a broody and in the incubator for lockdown and they died during lockdown. This hatch two hatched, both died, everything else dead in shell after lockdown.

Hatch #2 and #3 my temp was fluctuating and I thought that was the cause of the deaths. When I moved the incubator to my bedroom, the temp was steady. I spent a lot of money on eggs this time because I thought the temp was my issue and I had it under control in my room. I am so angry at myself for spending money when I still don't have a successful method.

So Wednesday I hope to try hatch #5 just using my own eggs but I need serious help. I am thinking completely dry hatch with only 60% humidity during lockdown.

 

[tec27]

It could be anything from bacteria to wrong temps/humidity. I think you may be trying too hard too. You don't need to turn 3-5 times a day. I turn once in the morning and once at night. You can turn more but i find it unnecessary. Once the chicks pip zip and hatch, leave them in the incubator until the rest hatch. When you open the incubator, even for a couple seconds, enough humidity will escape to shrink wrap the chicks. An unclosed navel sometimes happens to my chicks as well. It usually closes though after a couple hours. Yours seems like it hatched too soon. You may have even killed that one chick that pipped. It can take 24-48 hours to finish pipping. Some chicks take forever, while others take 10 minutes.

My advice: Once you hit lockdown don't touch anything until day 23.

 

[Feather Head]

I do not use a still air incubator. But it sounds like your humidity is to low to me. I keep mine at 50-60 % days 1-18 and 70-80 % on lock down. And lock down means no peaking. Except to add warm water and do that as quick as you can.

 

[RedPyleLady]

It sounds to me that your humdity was too low it should be at about 70 to 80 i think but other than that (and i dont mean this as a put down at all) but it seems like you might have bad genetics within your flock, maybe some bad chromosomes or something...maybe try something from online or another flock? I reall hope it all works out for you!

 

[deerman]

Humidity is to low. with still air are you checking temp top of eggs 101 top of eggs. LG don't hold temps well.

one hatching that early tells me your temp is most likely to hight

 

[adrian]

I just wanted to point out that I turn 5 times a day when I hand turn and believe me, 3-5 times is not excessive. Many incubators turn every hour. Turn an odd number of times a day so that the eggs do not sit on the same side each night. Nothing wrong with that.

When people have problems hatching but all the information (humidity and temperature especially) they present appears normal, I ask them to check that their instruments are properly calibrated. Try to locate a high quality digital thermometer and compare to the one you are using. I recommend the Brinsea spot check. It is expensive but worth it. I also recommend calibrating your hygrometer with the salt and water method. When eggs die around hatch usually it's due to excessive humidity but sometimes it is due to low humidity. There are other factors as well but this tends to be common.

 

[deerman]

oh the float test is a joke, thats for checking how fresh eggs are , not if eggs are going to hatch............eggs float because the air cell is getting larger. which they do with the egg getting older,

 

[Farmin Momma]

Yeah, but the idea of a float test in this aspect is that when you put the eggs in the water if the babies are still alive they will either peep or wiggle around in the egg, the water just helps you see the movement.

 

[deerman]

[COLOR=0000CD]Yeah, but the idea of a float test in this aspect is that when you put the eggs in the water if the babies are still alive they will either peep or wiggle around in the egg, the water just helps you see the movement.[/COLOR]

Yes it may tell you they are alive. But not a sure thing.still could be alive just not moving

 

[laura877]

After reading the post abt dry hatch (I'm using 2x stryofoam incubators) I have increased my hatch rate from 50% to 72% in just 3 hatches. I bought 10 eggs off eBay and had 100% live chicks. My humidity the first 18 days may drop to 15 or 18% then I add water and bring it up to 45%. When I am in lockdown, I don't open to add water to keep humidity at 65%. I take a meat baster, stick a flexible straw in the end and then put it down one of the holes in the top of the incubator. I then add hot water onto the sponges or into the water trays in the bottom of the bator.

Remember to leave your chicks in the bator for the 2-3 days once hatching starts. I would also check your thermo/hygrometer and make sure its accurite. If you had chicks hatching at 18 days, it sounds like its way off. That means the humidity could have been way too high and the chicks could have drown.