Eastin, I recandled today the remaining four with no pips. I didn't want to wait in vain. No movement, so I pipped the air sacs. No internal pips and no sign of life so I opened them up for self education. Only one was at term with just a bit of a yolk sac outside its abdomen. The other three were late quitters. Sad. So, I have 2 chicks out of the initial 15 mailed eggs. To my knowledge temp and humidity were OK throughout. The two that hatch were late day 20.
Things I plan to do different .
1) Just purchased an egg turner so I'm not opening the bator 5 times a day.
2) Move the bator to a counter instead if the kitchen table. The table gets jiggled alot.
3) It will kill me, but I will cut back on the candling, even though they're never out more than 5 minutes for a quick assessment. 4) Because I am near the altitude where the manufacturer recommends leaving the vent plug out, 6000ft (I'm at 5800). I wiil try that.
I am unsure what if anything to do about humidity. I live in the high desert. my house humidity is 20%. I didn't recognize excessive fluid in the eggs I opened or shrink wrapped chicks, however, with the vent open I can't maintain 40-45% humidity with the center well only filled, and it is much too high with both wells filled, so maybe a cup of some indeterminate size.
Any thoughts from those more experienced would be greatly appreciated.
I've got viable eggs in the bator and more on the way.
To summarize- out of 15 egg shipped
1 cracked
4 clear
3 early quitters
3 late quitters
1 at term, no internal pip
1 born with deformaties, culled
2 healthy live chicks
dak
