Silkies dead in shell - help?

[Sally Sunshine]

Thanks so much for they help, y'all! This hatch was kindof an impulse decision. I have these 4 wonderful cuddly pet silkies and they started to lay, I figured why not try to hatch them? I've hatched several times in homemade incubators but I'm by no means a professional My last hatch was a couple black copper Maran eggs, and I had one dead in shell that time, too. Same deal, no pip. But my lovely little single chick "Bob" came successfully of it, she's my buddy. I have a science background so I tend to dork out about every detail. I should point out that I live in Louisiana, and we have 70%-100% ambient humidity here, even in the winter. My incubator was so humid that the window was fogged up, for the whole 18 days, and I thought that was normal. I figured more humid was better, but I see that I was wrong, now that I've read the novel on here about Humidity (great stuff). I think the eggs didn't lose enough moisture during the first 18 days. Now that I've learned about air cell development, I realize the air cells are way smaller than they should be. My hygrometer is just a cheap stick-on kind like for reptiles, by no means reliable. But now I know that I can weigh the eggs and track the air cell to ensure proper moisture loss. I also learned about a million other things, you guys are great!

I'll keep you posted on how this next hatch goes.

here is a good read on viability and temps psss... ignore the title its a good read http://www.brinsea.com/customerservice/poweroff.html I have ton of incubating info like that link saved in my notes in an ARticle... lotsa links pics and videos https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101