Chicks were at day 23, hadn't seen any movement with candling and hadn't heard any peeps. Did float test, and even the one I knew was bad floated, so I decided to open one. Chick was dead, and backward. Realized I had put them in the incubator upside down. read up, tried to creat a peep hole on that end on another egg, but it was obviously dead as well. I removed it and it was even larger than the first. Figuring they were all dead, I opened two more. The next was a tiny bit smaller than the first, and the last was itty bitty. It's obvious they died at different stages. I had to stop though. I was too heartbroken to open anymore tonight. any ideas why they would do this though? Here are the 4 I opened. I'm heartbroken. I an to hatch many more as we are going to start breeding for laying and eating, so I want to do it right. Any help, please! *note: sorry to keep posting. No doubt this will be my last for a while (all chicks are dead from the unknown group, and assume the bantams as well as they were upside down too)
let me first say....I am so sorry I have hatched quite a few times but never had any loses like that but have never put the eggs in upside down. so I can't answer the question. what was your temp at what were your humidity levels day 1-18 18-21 I keep my incubator between 99-100 days 1-18 my humidity is between 30-40 lockdown days 18-21 humidity is between 50-60 and don't open until they all hatch
Temp stayed at 99-100 except when we had a power outage 2 weeks ago, which lasted 6 hrs. The chicks were all past the development stage which they would have been were the outage to have caused their death. I didn't have anyway to check the humidity, as this was all spur of the moment. I had one plug in days 1-17 and two in days 18-23, no opening days 18-22. This was my first time using an auto turner. Growing up, we always turned by hand :/
power outage could have something to do with it or maybe too much humidity they look really wet maybe drowning? I keep a hydrometer in my incubator but I have a brinsea so mine is different I don't have plugs maybe someone who does will chime in. I have the auto turner which makes it way easier.
I don't think a 6hr outage would have too much effect. It does look like the chicks are wet - did you add water throughout incubation? I would suggest reading up on dry hatching. Also, during the last couple days, they need all the oxygen they can get, so closing up your incubator is the opposite of what you want. It takes a lot of energy to hatch, so they need oxygen!
I kept plenty of water in the bator. Didn't know that about the oxygen! I thought that was the only way to get humidity up In a styrofoam bator. :/
I know that you need to be careful with the humidity and the amount of water. I didn't have fancy equipment but I knew to add more water toward the end, but I still only added water once per week at the most. Too much water and they drown inside of the egg. I'm no expert, but I would think putting them into the incubator upside down can really be a problem, they need to orient their heads toward the air cell at the big end of the egg to begin breathing before they start to pip out of the shell.
I use no water in my Styrofoam. Even at lock down, I add little or none. I do have to help if they are shrink wrapped, but at least they live!
