Egg glop... snot.. sticky mess!

[Sweetened]

This is the first year I've done a dry hatch and I have a phenomena that is baffling me and killing chicks. Some people have seen this before, but no one has been able to tell me WHAT and WHY and HOW to fix it. In my case, this is killing chicks in the egg. It's different from shrinkwrapping, where that membrane gets hard on the chick. This... snotty gelatinous stuff hardens in the air, capturing and freezing chicks inside the egg until they just die. If an egg pips and is dry around the beak, I've been pulling them in order to get the glob of goop out and have a bloody chick in the bator because he wasn't ready to be out. Does anyone know the what why and how on this?

Thanks.

[Davinci]

What causes it? Good question. There seems to be a lot of documented incubating problems, and very few definitive answers to go along with them. This gunk is the slime that 'drowns' chicks when they hatch. More like smothers them. Sorry, I have no answer.

[Sweetened]

Oh Davinci... it's a MESS.

This isn't what I've encountered before for drowned chicks. I find the chicks that drown had a watery membrane that laid on them and suffocated them because they didn't move or increase the hole! This is so much different. It's like they are smothered in a coating that turns to a rock. It gets into every nook and crany and takes forever to unharden under warm water!

The chick I pulled from an egg this morning could only move his beak. He was otherwise stuck in the fetal position, SOLIDIFIED!! 5 minutes under the water, slowly and, as gently as possible, wiggling parts to get the water in and around all the fuzz

[Chickenlady]

Never heard of this, what do you mean with dry hatch?

[Davinci]

If I may, dry hatch means to add no humidity to the incubator. Most bators have a water tray that you fill with water so there is humidity in the incubator. I dry hatch when I found most of my chicks drowned in the shell.

SOme people have luck with dry hatching, others don't. I think the relative of humidity of where you live might also have some effect.

This dry hatch vs humid hatch is an ongoing debate in the hatching world.

[prairie dog]

Are you not adding water on day 18 ? I did dry for two years and I found that I needed water for at least the first day of hatching , after that the humidity from the hatching eggs took care of it . I found this out the hard way as well with locked chicks dying in the egg because they got dried out . I also turned the fan off during the hatching process , seemed to dry the air a bit to fast , but have done it with the fan on , just controlled the air coming in ...............worked for me

[Sweetened]

I am adding water at lockdown. From another forum, it turns out that this might be related to excess ventilation during day 1-18. Hmm

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