What did I do wrong? First time hatcher

[Katebeck94]

I have been raising chickens for 3 years and have only lost a hand full. I have over 80 chickens. All happy and healthy. We have a produce business. So I decided to take things up a notch and bought a VERY EXPENSIVE incubator. Pro Series Digital Incubator, it holds 41 eggs. I had put my own eggs in 1 - 3 days apart, now understanding that was a BAD IDEA! count down began and I lost 3 to Duds ( not fertile ) the rest were great! 15 days in a few others didn’t make it and I discarded them. Temp stayed at a perfect 100 since this is a electric all self monitoring incubator it has a motor to self turn and the humidity was at a perfect 50-55 the entire time. Day 18 we started Lock down last check all Moved in the egg and laid them down like the manual said. Day 20 came and 1 pipped and hatched along with 4 others. I had lost 3 to something. They pipped and then hours later the membrane was red.... 1 of mine shrink wrapped and I managed to get him out. All are healthy and going strong. Today made day 24/25 and nothing, no movement no piping. They ALL DIED!!! What did I do wrong? I kept humidity at 65-75 during lock down and only opened it to make sure they didn’t pipe down and to get the chicks out to the main brooder.
I learned a few things like put all eggs in at the same time so they aren’t waiting and I won’t have to open it after lock down. I candled when I should have and looked for all the signs. I’m so upset! At one point my incubator went bananas and the humidity jumped to 91% then fell to 75. I’m so disappointed and worried I killed my Unhatched chicks. What can I do better next time?

 

[Pyxis]

The humidity was probably not correct for them. The best humidity to use varies from place to place. For example, in my area, 30% is the best. If I tried 50%, all my chicks would die before they made it to hatch.

Humidity is the first thing I think of for late in incubation deaths like this. Did you candle and track the air cells and see if they were developing on schedule? Or did you try opening the eggs to see what might have gone wrong? If so, did you see liquid in there?

 

[Katebeck94]

The humidity was probably not correct for them. The best humidity to use varies from place to place. For example, in my area, 30% is the best. If I tried 50%, all my chicks would die before they made it to hatch.

Humidity is the first thing I think of for late in incubation deaths like this. Did you candle and track the air cells and see if they were developing on schedule? Or did you try opening the eggs to see what might have gone wrong? If so, did you see liquid in there?

Yes I opened them and they were fully developed but there was some liquid in there, some different then others the membrane looked great but there was liquid in there. Was that normal? And yes I candled them and they were developing beautifully

 

[Pyxis]

Yes I opened them and they were fully developed but there was some liquid in there, some different then others the membrane looked great but there was liquid in there. Was that normal? And yes I candled them and they were developing beautifully

Liquid in there to me says humidity was too high. I'd try a lower humidity next time. You could even weigh the eggs to track the moisture loss and be sure the humidity is good, if you wanted. I have a section about that in this article:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-beginners-guide-to-incubation.73350/