Need Advice / Help - Lockdown in progress

[plopat]

Hi
In an egg to chick program with my daughter and it's our first time attempting to hatch chicks. 12 Australorp eggs provided to us - no idea on when the were hatch or how handled prior to us receiving them.
They went into a still air incubator at 5pm on April 15th. Today is May 8th and still no hatch. We are very sad and are loosing hope. There are two eggs with hairline cracks in them and one of them has a tiny pip. But nothing new since last evening. I did see 1 egg move last night but nothing today.

The temp is at 98.4 and humidty around 64%.

Still air incubator was consistent at 99.5 and humidity stayed fairly steady at 55% avg. Eggs were turned 3 x per day and hands washed before hand.

Question 1 - what did we do wrong?? Question 2 - when do we give up hope of these eggs hatching? Question 3 - is my temp / humidity ok for this hatching period? There seems to be so much conflicting information out there that its very hard to tell what is correct and is opinion. We followed the instructions of our group leader on temp / humidity.

Any advice would be helpful as we are clearly running out of time & hope. Thanks!

 

[Cyprus]

Are they due to hatch today? If so, don't despair. It sounds like your temp was a little on the low side, so the chicks may be a few days behind. For lockdown, I recommend a temperature of 100°F. Humidity has been found to yield good results at about 75% during lockdown.

 

[plopat]

Are they due to hatch today? If so, don't despair. It sounds like your temp was a little on the low side, so the chicks may be a few days behind. For lockdown, I recommend a temperature of 100°F. Humidity has been found to yield good results at about 75% during lockdown.

It's been hard to get the humidity level up. Highest I was able to get last night was 68%. I have the water troughs filled and I have three paper towels in the corners soaked in water. I believe day 21 was Monday - so i"m 2 days behind

 

[Cyprus]

I might suggest candling to check for movement, but I'd wait on doing anything until at least 3 new individuals give advice.
Perhaps @WVduckchick @Pyxis Or @aart can help

 

[WVduckchick]

For still air incubators, a higher temp is recommended, around 101-102, taken at the top of the eggs, because without a fan, the warm air doesn’t circulate around the whole egg as much. So I’d say that’s the main issue.
Humidity depends on a few things, so I suggest reading the Red link below, in my signature block.

Since you do have a pip, I’d just give them another day or two and they should start hatching. You could candle them if you want and look for movement and drawdown of the air cell, and internal pips.

Good luck! Hang in there.

 

[plopat]

For still air incubators, a higher temp is recommended, around 101-102, taken at the top of the eggs, because without a fan, the warm air doesn’t circulate around the whole egg as much. So I’d say that’s the main issue.
Humidity depends on a few things, so I suggest reading the Red link below, in my signature block.

Since you do have a pip, I’d just give them another day or two and they should start hatching. You could candle them if you want and look for movement and drawdown of the air cell, and internal pips.

Good luck! Hang in there.

Your article is very informative and I appreciate you sharing it. I raised my temp to 101.4 to see if that will help. Assuming that on Friday (Day 25) if there's nothing "new" going on, we have lost our eggs? Again .. thank you!

 

[aart]

Assuming that on Friday (Day 25) if there's nothing "new" going on, we have lost our eggs?

Probably, but might wait a couple more days due to low incubation temp.

Hatching is tricky, part science-part art, and can be heartbreaking.
It gets easier as you learn the equipment and process.

Did you do any candling and marking of air cells during the incubation?

In the future might want to test your therms and hygros before setting eggs,
the devices built into bators are often inaccurate.

Curious, what is the "egg to chick program"?

 

[WVduckchick]

Your article is very informative and I appreciate you sharing it. I raised my temp to 101.4 to see if that will help. Assuming that on Friday (Day 25) if there's nothing "new" going on, we have lost our eggs? Again .. thank you!

I agree with @aart definitely test your meters before another set. We’ve seen eggs hatch past day 25, but slower development can cause issues like curled feet, deformities, etc. Your temp was close though (if your meter is accurate) so hopefully none of that happens. Candle the eggs today, I think you will be able to tell if they are still viable or not.

 

[plopat]

Probably, but might wait a couple more days due to low incubation temp.

Hatching is tricky, part science-part art, and can be heartbreaking.
It gets easier as you learn the equipment and process.

Did you do any candling and marking of air cells during the incubation?

In the future might want to test your therms and hygros before setting eggs,
the devices built into bators are often inaccurate.

Curious, what is the "egg to chick program"?

Thanks. We are in 4H. They give you a still-air incubator with the program & than you return it. So I think if we ever decide to do this again, I would get my own incubator. We candled through the process about 3 times. We marked air cells before lock down. That is when we removed the non-viable eggs. We have 9 in the incubator now and they all seemed healthy with very prominent air cells when they went in. Brown eggs so been hard to see inside.

 

[plopat]

OK - it's now day 24 and this egg has a crack like this on the other side too. But today I see something oozing from this crack. Is this bad or good?
Should I candle all eggs to see what is going on at this point?
I APPRECIATE ANY AND ALL HELP! This is so stressful .... : (