Bobwhite No-hatch Curse!

[PortugalBreeder]

I am desperate because for the second year I'm trying to hatch bobwhites and I can't.

Last year, my breeders were 1 year old and in their first breeding season so I blamed the lack of fertility on that.

Now they are 2 years old, and all the eggs are fertile, BUT the chicks die.

The first egg layed was infertile, but the second one was fertile and the chick piped on day 23, but then lost the strength and died. Now I have two more eggs that piped on day 23 in the morning (today), and are not progressing anything. I was so anxious that I tried to open one and there was a lot of blood (I prob bursted on of the veins), the other one I will not try to help.

But my big fears are that all the other younger eggs will meet the same destine and not hatch.

Is it possible that because I'm using a light bulb the light blinking is causing stress to the chicks, making them die?

Can anyone give any advice?

P.S.-I have alredy hatch chickens, and coturnix quail on that incubator and had sucess.

 

[jbobs]

I have used a bator with light bulbs and never had an issue hatching bobs in them along with coturnix, buttons, and chickens. What is your temperature and humidity? How old are the eggs when you put them in the bator? When do you stop turning them? If the chicks are pipping and not able to get out I would suspect humidity is too low...

 

[PortugalBreeder]

I have used a bator with light bulbs and never had an issue hatching bobs in them along with coturnix, buttons, and chickens. What is your temperature and humidity? How old are the eggs when you put them in the bator? When do you stop turning them? If the chicks are pipping and not able to get out I would suspect humidity is too low...

My temperature is 37.5ºC or 99.5F at incubation tray level, and 37.9ºC or 100.22F at the hatcher tray level, the humidity is 71% (but i'm not sure how accurate my hygrometer is).
I have two bob hens laying so I save the eggs until the older ones are 5 days old and I put them all in the incubator so some are 5, other 4, 3, 2, 1 days old. I have them all marked so I can make a statistic, of what's the better day to store them, so I can tell you that this eggs [CORRECTION] were 1 and 3 days old when I put them in.

Last year from what I had read I also suspected about the humidity, but then the coturnix and the chickens hatched no problem! Do you think my birds are to old? (They are 2 year old)
Thank you very much I appreciate you help a lot.

 

[TwoCrows]

71% humidity is too high during incubation for Bobs. You need to lower it to 55% or 60%. At lock down, day 20, you should then up the humidity to 70%. Temp should hover between 99.5 and 99.7 during incubation. Vents need to be wide open during this time of lock down. Do you have sufficient ventilation in the incubator? Like a fan drawing oxygen from the outside? The babies need to breathe fresh air to develop good health. You need accurate temp and humidity gauges. And it is always advised to use 2 thermometers in the incubator for accuracy. Also, is this a still air incubator or forced air? If you are using a still air, many times they get hot spots and that can effect the chicks growth.

Eggs need to be stored a few days before putting in the incubator. It is not advised to go out and collect the eggs and place in the incubator. They should rest at least 3 or 4 days in a room with a temp of about 50-60 degrees, big end up. You want the eggs to sort of suspend themselves from developing until you start the incubation process. As they are resting on your counter, you need turn the eggs 3 times a day to keep what ever life is in the egg alive. Eggs over 10 days old start to deteriorate.

Are you cleaning your incubator between hatches? There may be some sort of bacteria or virus present. What ever chemicals you use need to be thoroughly cleaned out as fumigants can kill babies.

Where is your incubator located? Inside, outside? Is it near anything toxic smelling? Near the gas stove?

 

[PortugalBreeder]

71% humidity is too high during incubation for Bobs. You need to lower it to 55% or 60%. At lock down, day 20, you should then up the humidity to 70%. Temp should hover between 99.5 and 99.7 during incubation. Vents need to be wide open during this time of lock down. Do you have sufficient ventilation in the incubator? Like a fan drawing oxygen from the outside? The babies need to breathe fresh air to develop good health. You need accurate temp and humidity gauges. And it is always advised to use 2 thermometers in the incubator for accuracy. Also, is this a still air incubator or forced air? If you are using a still air, many times they get hot spots and that can effect the chicks growth.

Eggs need to be stored a few days before putting in the incubator. It is not advised to go out and collect the eggs and place in the incubator. They should rest at least 3 or 4 days in a room with a temp of about 50-60 degrees, big end up. You want the eggs to sort of suspend themselves from developing until you start the incubation process. As they are resting on your counter, you need turn the eggs 3 times a day to keep what ever life is in the egg alive. Eggs over 10 days old start to deteriorate.

Are you cleaning your incubator between hatches? There may be some sort of bacteria or virus present. What ever chemicals you use need to be thoroughly cleaned out as fumigants can kill babies.

Where is your incubator located? Inside, outside? Is it near anything toxic smelling? Near the gas stove?

It is 71% on the 2 eggs that are hatching.
My incubator has no vents, I think. I don't think it can sustain having vents(?), in fact every time I open it the temperature gets off by a lot, and humidity drops to around 50%.
My incubator has a fan that circulates the air.
Thanks for the advice of storing, I'm doing it almost like you said, and I will correct it now.

Yes I cleaned my incubator after hatching goose, but after it I have already hatched chickens and have not washed because I didn't want to waste my bobwhite eggs (they started laying before the chickens were ready to get off the incubator).
I use a product similar to Lysol (containing cresols), is it bad?

It's inside, in the living room, the temperature is very stable, I do have a wood stove in the kitchen which is next to the living room.

 

[TwoCrows]

It is either a ventilation issue or a humidity issue. Chicks that get to the point of starting to pip and don't come out of the eggs are either sticking to the shell, do not have enough oxygen in the incubator, (which is a VERY common issue) or the eggs were not positioned right in the incubator during incubation.

I think you need to look into your incubator and figure out if you have vents, are they open during hatching and if not, maybe you need a better incubator. When the chicks start to pip, they need a TON of oxygen that they did not need inside the egg. There is a lot of babies coming to life looking for oxygen. Their lungs are starving for air while trying to get out of the egg. And if they are getting deprived of it, they are going to die.

I use this chart when I have troubles with incubating eggs. It helps you figure out what has gone wrong with your hatches.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

 

[PortugalBreeder]

It is either a ventilation issue or a humidity issue. Chicks that get to the point of starting to pip and don't come out of the eggs are either sticking to the shell, do not have enough oxygen in the incubator, (which is a VERY common issue) or the eggs were not positioned right in the incubator during incubation.

I think you need to look into your incubator and figure out if you have vents, are they open during hatching and if not, maybe you need a better incubator. When the chicks start to pip, they need a TON of oxygen that they did not need inside the egg. There is a lot of babies coming to life looking for oxygen. Their lungs are starving for air while trying to get out of the egg. And if they are getting deprived of it, they are going to die.

I use this chart when I have troubles with incubating eggs. It helps you figure out what has gone wrong with your hatches.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

Thank you very much, I will address all those issues, although I'm pretty sure the eggs position during incubation is correct. The other issues, humidity, oxygen, seem the cause to me. Thank you a lot!

 

[PortugalBreeder]

Problem solved! It was low temperature, off by probably less then half a degree.
I'm adding this here to help people in the future, since none of the Troubleshooting Guides I found have low temperature as "Probable cause" for "Pipped eggs, but died without hatching" symptom.

 

[QChickieMama]

It is either a ventilation issue or a humidity issue. Chicks that get to the point of starting to pip and don't come out of the eggs are either sticking to the shell, do not have enough oxygen in the incubator, (which is a VERY common issue) or the eggs were not positioned right in the incubator during incubation.

I think you need to look into your incubator and figure out if you have vents, are they open during hatching and if not, maybe you need a better incubator. When the chicks start to pip, they need a TON of oxygen that they did not need inside the egg. There is a lot of babies coming to life looking for oxygen. Their lungs are starving for air while trying to get out of the egg. And if they are getting deprived of it, they are going to die.

I use this chart when I have troubles with incubating eggs. It helps you figure out what has gone wrong with your hatches.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

I have experienced this very same problem with my bobs not hatching after pipping. My problem was the vents. I didn't have them open. Didn't know I needed to do that.

This didn't seem to affect my coturnix batches much, but plenty of oxygen seems to matter even more to the bobs during hatching.