Quail Eggs die at end stage

[ManitobaQuail]

Hi, we have been hatching quail eggs for about 2 years now. In our past two hatches we found that there were MANY (30 out of 100 ish) chicks that die at the very last stages before hatching. We got 2 pipped and zipped but died before hatch, and about 28 that did not pip but seemed fully ready to hatch but didn't make it.

We didn't do anything different than what we were doing before - keeping the humidity between 35~40% before lockdown and around 65-70% during lockdown.

Can someone please help? It's the worst thing to have to open eggs and see dead chicks inside

 

[ManitobaQuail]

Our previous hatch rate hovers around the 75%-85%. But the past two hatches dropped to around 60%.

The past two hatches we incubated some shipped eggs and some eggs from our own quail, but doesn't seem to be a factor as it happened to both types of eggs.