Chicks not hatching

[Colleen Kinzie]

Hi
I’m back at it. Lol
Does anyone have any insight as to why this is happening?
Chicks pretty well fully formed with yolk sac maybe about 1/3 left and die in shell
Styrofoam incubator with fan. Dry incubated until lockdown. Then I try to keep humidity at 70%
Also what are the bulges on the one yolk sac
Other pic of tiny formed chick probably not very far along just for interest
Thanks everyone

[Jaye]

Not an expert, but IMHO humidity at 70% is WAY too high, and they may have drowned about the time of hatching.
What temp and humidity are you trying to keep consistent during incubation?

[Colleen Kinzie]

@Jaye
Dry incubation at 99.5degrees
At lockdown I try to maintain 70% humidity
Would there still be that large of a yolk sac at day 18?
Thanks

[Killerbunny]

I agree with @Jaye way too high humidity at lockdown. We need @windwalkingwolf here to give her insight.

[kenya]

The highest I go with humidity is 50 -55%,
70% you are drowning the chicks

[Kbr42]

I have had lots of sucess with humidity at 45 to 50 from day 0-18 day 18 until hatch 62-65%.
Anyrhing higher than the chicks drown. My last hatch out of 13 I had 11 hatch. The 2 that didn't were shipped eggs and had saddle bag air sacs.

[WLLady]

Looks to me like the humidity did them in. if you dry incubated you might want to just get the humidity to 50%, or just try a dry hatch.....don't add any water, and when the eggs hatch they'll add humidity to the air naturally.

[windwalkingwolf]

I agree with the humidity being too high, too fast. The eggs sucked in the water like sponges, and bacteria came with it. They are saturated, and the chick could never absorb all that mass of water, can't excrete it, and dies of congestive heart failure. I would not increase humidity at all during lockdown--if your house is really dry (static when you remove your coat?)and air cells are too large (this is one reason why I'm a serial candler LOL) simply disconnect the incubator fan for lockdown, and the eggs take care of the rest themselves. If shrink-wrapping happens, babies can often be saved and are often normal, but swollen chicks that survive often get glued in, have organ damage, are susceptible to omphalitis and other infections, and are otherwise never quite right and tend to die young.

[Kbr42]

(this is one reason why I'm a serial candler LOL) simply disconnect the incubator fan for lockdown, and the eggs take care of the rest themselves. If shrink-wrapping happens, babies can often be saved and are often normal, but swollen chicks that survive often get glued in, have organ damage, are susceptible to omphalitis and other infections, and are otherwise never quite right and tend to die young.

Ok, very interested in the simply disconnect the fan......have you done that before? I have had chicks dry out before getting out of the shell because they took a nap after unzipping.
I thought in my gqf 1588 that the fan was part of the heating system. How do you just turn off the fan part?

[WLLady]

if you can't turn off the fan you might be able to install a baffle of some type so the wind isn't blowing directly on the eggs/hatching chicks....