Problems after lockdown?

[jhebert9]

Good morning everyone!

I raise silkies. With my last hatch, I had 13 eggs that successfully made it to lockdown (candled at 18 days to confirm they were alive and well). Then, on hatch day, only 6 pipped, and only 4 hatched on their own. One died before hatching, and I helped one hatch because it'd been a long time, with no progress (over 24hrs). It's alive and well now and WAS ready.

I'm incubating in a hovabator genesis. I ran it dry until day 18 (usually around 20-25% give or take), and upped the humidity to 60-70% on day 18.

Today is day 18 for my next batch of 15 eggs. I just candled them & removed them from the turner, and upped the humidity. Any idea as to what happened last time, and how I can prevent it with this hatch? I'd love for the majority of my chicks to hatch!

They aren't *shipped* eggs per say, but they (and the last batch) did travel by car for about 2 hrs from another breeder.

Any advice is appreciated.

THANKS

 

[roosterhavoc]

I hope someone can offer up something. I don't know. The only thing I can think of is humidity being a little too low, but there are a lot of people that this set up works just fine.

 

[dheltzel]

There is articles about incubation, dry incubation and egtopsies, so I won't repeat those, just suggest you do a lot of reading on this site. I weigh the eggs to try to get them to lose about 13% of their weight during incubation. I've found that I should leave out the water until day 18, but ambient humidity is high here in summer.

Once they are ready for lockdown, I try to reduce the temp a degree and up the humidity as high as possible. I have also found that if I stop the fan before they pip, I don't get any shrink-wrapped chicks, or at least way fewer.

That's my experience, it might not work for you like that, so reading and experimenting is the way to get better hatches.

 

[jhebert9]

Thank you for the replies! I've been hearing from a lot of others that have gotten 100% hatch rates in the past that have been having bad luck, too, recently. Maybe it's just the barometric pressure or something. Idk. I really appreciate the advice and will keep everyone posted on the progress of the hatch.

 

[salsan20]

Not an expert by any means, in fact this time is my first time hatching anything other than quail varieties so im nervous too! But from my quail hatches I know a little, if the air cell is too big then the humidity is too high and the chick can drown before externally pipping or get too sticky from the excess moisture and be unable to move as easily to unzip. If the aircell is too small (too low humidity) the chick grows too big and cant turn to position properly for pipping. The pip is actually caused by low levels of oxygen causing a reflex in the chicks neck muscles so if it isnt positioned properly it can be pecking at nothing or itself. With duck eggs they say there is no right humidity, measure the air cells against normal growth and adjust humidity accordingly, that makes more sense to me as all birds nest within the elements in the wild so they must be reasonably tolerant of humidity fluctuations. Shipped eggs or roughish handling can detach the air cells which change the position the chick develops in if the air cell reattaches on its side for instance but if you had noticed funny shaped or wobbly air cells I think you would have mentioned so we can probably rule that out. If the bird has too much grit or calcium in its diet when it lays the egg the shell feels bumpyish and you can sometimes see little lumpier bits, this makes the shell tougher and more unlikely a pip will occur or if it does then the bird will be too tired or unable to unzip without assistance. Hope that helps

Wish me luck Im incubating 11 duck eggs all of which had either loose or detatched air cells from rough shipping on day 17 and I have 4 mystery farm chick eggs from our local farms fresh eggs that I thought I would incubate for kicks all due on 22nd!

 

[roosterhavoc]

I think you may have mixed up the air cell size and humidity levels.

 

[salsan20]

Rats your right, the air cell is a result of moisture loss by the egg, meant to put big air cell needs more humidity small air cell needs less but got them back to front, sorry!

 

[jhebert9]

Hatch day is tomorrow, have my 1st pip!

 

[jhebert9]

Update! Still just ONE pip. Getting anxious, now!

 

[roosterhavoc]

Good luck