In shell death question...

[steffpeck]

Quote:
If you hatch enough, you get used to it. Its not hard to deal with for me, but it is a bit disappointing...

Yep, what he said.

 

[ginasmarans]

I had the best hatch ever last Fall. 31 out f 37 hatched and that included all of the marans eggs which I could not candle well at all. I had been having lousy hatches, with several developed chicks not making it out. I decided that humidity was to blame,but not because there was too much moisture,but because the air cell was not large enough when the chick internally pipped and the poor thing ran out of air before it could get out. This is what I did: I kept humidity around 40% after day 10 and did not raise it until day 19. I then raised it to only 60%. Chicks popped out like pop corn. I have eggs coming next week and that's what I plan on doing with this batch.

 

[SunnyChic]

I just read this link from another thread; it has some interesting info:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/trouble.htm#SE

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Ok, I decided to open the two eggs that were two to three days late. One was a blue silkie and the other was a buff silkie

The blue silkie appeared to have broken the membrane as there was a hole right where its beak was. The membrane was rather tight and was I refer to as "shrink wrapped."

The buff hadn't broken the membrane and appeard to have died a little earlier as it didn't look to be fully developed. All the parts were there, but it just looked like it was still in development.

I've set up the LG styrofoam incubator as a hatcher and I am maintaining 99.5 degrees and a 52 to 55% humidity, which is higher than it was in the big bator. The cabinet I couldn't seem to get over 50%, and that was even sporatic.

I'm adding a sponge to the LG to help get it a little higher as I can't afford to loose this last buff egg. The last time I checked the buff was still moving in there.

 

[BamaChicken]

I'm with you Poulet. I can't figure it out either. I think we try to hard. I just took about 15 eggs out from under some blue silkie hens that were going to a new home last week and I candled and put the ones with chicks in them in the hovabator with the turner. I pour water in about a cup and thought even thought they are up and down the road in times to hatch , what the heck. I am not losing anything by giving them the opportunity to hatch. I have had 11 to hatch so far in the turner without me checking humidity on ly adding a little water every three days. I have the other in there for another few days to see if they hatch. I will candle before I throw them out to see if they are still develping.
They just rode the turner like no problem. So much for letting them settle into a position. I don't think the mother hen quits rotating either before they hatch.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

I have heard that when silkies have large vaults, they can pip the air sac, but cant pip the shell since they dont have enough room to move around because of their large vault. Not sure if its true, but I could see the possibility of that being it.

 

[klf73]

Quote:
ditto, heard this too. I opened some of these last year and quite a few had real nice vaults. The other problem I had with silkies was they got too big for the egg and couldn't move to pip, could tell this when I candled as the air cell *arced* instead of being rather flat.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Well I got the LG set up and holding at 99.5 and the humidity was holding at 52%. I added a damp sponge this afternoon and I'm now running in the 70's so we will see if this makes a difference. The buff egg is scheduled to hatch on Sunday, and the blues should start tomorrow.