possible I lock down too early?

[raisedinabarnes]

I have no idea where my head was when I locked down my incubator. I believe that I locked it down on day 17 rather on day 19. The day I locked it down I candled and determined that I had 16 viable eggs, today I have only 2 chicks. Yesterday, hatch day, about 8 of the eggs had a pip and about 6 of them had broke a large section out of the shell but only two actually zipped the egg open. The rest died in the eggs, like they couldn't move around inside to zip it open.

I feel HORRIBLE, I know I didn't do this on purpose, but I should have not made such a careless mistake. I'd like to try again (this was not my first hatch, last year I achieved 10 chicks from 12 eggs) but before I do I want to make sure that I don't repeat the same mistakes.

The rest of the incubation process was perfection. About 40-50% humidity @ 99-100 degrees for all days before lock down. I used an automatic egg turner within a forced air incubator. I'm thinking they needed two more days of turning and everything would have been great.

Anyone have an opinion?

 

[JaeG]

If they pipped externally then excess humidity was not the problem. If the air cells aren't big enough then the chicks suffocate (they don't drown) before being able to pip externally.

If the majority of non hatches had broken off large sections but hadn't unzipped that sounds like they got stuck for some reason.

Turning the eggs is actually unnecessary in that last week so I'm not entirely sure what is going on here. Was there good ventilation of fresh air going into the incubator? Have you got an independent thermometer and hygrometer that have been calibrated to ensure they are accurate? The ones on incubators are notorious for being wrong.

That's all I can think of at the moment but I'm sure someone else will have some ideas.