What went wrong?

[lushland]

I've hatched a lot of eggs but this is a new problem for me. Started with 20 eggs but 8 were clear or early quitters. The 12 that made it to lockdown looked good but they are mostly welsummer and marans eggs so kind of hard to see much. Day 20, 1 hatched. Day 21, 2 more hatched after being pipped for over 24 hrs. Day 22, 3 more hatched, one had a lot of trouble and I ended up helping it. Day 23, one more hatched but it took a long time. I candled the 5 remaining eggs and didn't see any movement but left them in overnight. Today is Day 24 and I took the eggs out and opened them. They were all completely formed, yolk absorbed, 2 had pipped the internal membrane but not the shell. One was still alive. Eeek! I had chipped off the shell from the air sack and tore the membrane a little and it started bleeding, then saw the chick moving. I quickly stuck it back in the incubator but don't think it will make it.
What would have caused so many to die just before hatching? They were in a little giant until lockdown then put in a brinsea 20 to hatch. We have more eggs that need to go into the brinsea for lockdown tomorrow and I'm hoping for a better outcome.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Temp? Still or forced air? Humidity? Did you calibrate your instruments before setting?

With as dragged out as your hatches were, it kind of sounds like you had some temp variances, which LGs are famous for.

 

[lushland]

Temp in the LG did seem to fluctuate a lot. It's only our second time using it. It was generally between 99.6 and 100.6. Tried to keep humidity around 50-60% but it also seemed to fluctuate way too much. We didn't calibrate anything. The brinsea we have used a lot. Temp was 99.8. Filed both water channels and used felt to increase humidity like we've always done. It measured at 70% and went higher when chicks hatched. But not sure how accurate my hygrometer was.

 

[lushland]

I think they are both forced air incubators. They both have fans that run the whole time.

 

[pelon la troka]

Hi , same thing happened to me...I bought a thermometer in Wal-Mart first time I used it out of 35 eggs only 20 hatch .....second time out of 35 eggs only 10 hatch so i order a thermometer of eBay especially for incubator yesterday came In the mail...so I try it ....the one from Wal-Mart is measuring 100 f ......the one from eBay 105 f .....so I was thinking maybe the Wal-Mart thermometer went bad.....

 

[lushland]

Hi , same thing happened to me...I bought a thermometer in Wal-Mart first time I used it out of 35 eggs only 20 hatch .....second time out of 35 eggs only 10 hatch so i order a thermometer of eBay especially for incubator yesterday came In the mail...so I try it ....the one from Wal-Mart is measuring 100 f ......the one from eBay 105 f .....so I was thinking maybe the Wal-Mart thermometer went bad.....

Wow!that's a big difference! I'll get a Thermometer to double check the temps. I guess that could explain early problems or delayed hatching but I think I am most concerned about all the chicks that are ready to hatch then just die. What would cause that?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I highly recommend Brinsea Spot Check thermometers. I have 2, they're fabulous!

The late deaths could be due to heat stress as well. They may have managed to be in a cool spot for most of the incubation (if heat was the problem) and then a variance happened. Or, your humidity could've been off one way or the other, causing too much moisture loss, not enough, shrink wrapping, ECT.

 

[lushland]

I candled the eggs that go into lockdown today and marked the air cells. They seem to have really small air cells. Would that be from too much humidity during incubation?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Yes :/

 

[pelon la troka]

What humidity level you have it on?? What would be the best humidity level??? Well I have a homemade incubator with a big bucket of water with a sponge inside sometimes is hard for me to raise humidity any ideas