Quail eggs died just before hatching.

[sealt]

I just started with quails and bought an incubator and eggs to get get roosters that isn't related to the quails i bought.
But the eggs didnt hatch.Candled them on day 15 and 24 of 27 was fertile and looked good.On day 24 i opened one up to see whats going on and the chicken looked like it was about ready to be hatched.It had beak,eyes,feathers and feet well developed and wasn't stuck to the eggshell .And i couldnt see any thing wrong with its development eighter.But the egg was dead,the blood veins in the egg was black,and i didnt ntice any discoloration on the yolk other than the black blood veins
The eggs was fresh,when i bought them they were picked right out of the quail pen and into my car.And from what the egg seller told me that they had successfully hatched 30-40 from eggs taken the same week as mine in the same incubator that i have.

The incubator seems to be fine,put 2 different thermometer in it to check if the reading on the incubator was correct and they had the same readings on 4-5 different spots in the incubator.

Not sure what happened to the eggs,any ideas?

 

[thehackleguy]

Sounds like your humidity was to low, but it could also be genetics or nutrition of the parent flock. What was your humidity?

 

[sealt]

The humidity reader on the incubator was reading 45-50,the first 2 weeks and i upped it to about 60 when i moved the eggs out of the automatic egg rotator

 

[sealt]

Forgot to add that it doesn't look like the chicken tried to get out,the membrane to the air pocket was intact.

 

[spotsplus]

Sorry for your loss of all the chicks. To have them all not make it does not sound genetic (although it is possible). Sounds like something in the incubation process. Possible causes could be temperature got too hot for too long, contamination of the incubator, temperature was too cold for too long, not enough humidity. It would be hard to pinpoint a cause.

 

[sealt]

I think i can rule out contamination of the incubator cause its new.

Is it ok if i post photos of the opened egg or will it be to gross?

 

[thehackleguy]

Go for it, no one is forced to look at it and it may help diagnose your problem.

 

[annimon]

I had the same problem. husband increased heat by switching on brooder lamp accidentally. Hatching day water was dried out. horrible, i managed to get two out four eggs out by hand when I realised what was happening.

 

[sealt]

Here it goes,if anyone find it gross then i apologize.

The pictures changed the angle after i uploaded them,the pictures got rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise.

Here is the egg after i cracked the eggshell,membrane is untouched



Here is the egg after i removed the membrane



Here is the egg and chicken

 

[thehackleguy]

That is strange, it looks like they died just prior to hatching. But it does not look dried out or to wet for the stage they are at. What kind of incubator do you have, is there a fan in it, and did you have any of the air passages open?