why do we have dead chicks?

[CarolynEarley]

We live in Crete. We have had some success with our hens going broody and them hatching chicks but the number of successes are becoming fewer. My gut feeling is that it is because the weather is so hot here now. Today our latest broody, Madge, had three dead chicks. It looked like they had started to break through the shell but had then died. We moved the other three eggs to an incubator as we were unsure what the problem was. However, the humidity levels in the incubator are only at 55 so I don't think the eggs will hatch in there either. It is very upsetting and we need to find out the cause so we can change things. Our most successful hatchings were earlier in the year when it was not so hot. Could this be the case? or we are missing something else? We have another hen sitting on eggs since last evening and I hope to find the solution to this problem before we lose those potential chicks as well. What can we do when she is due to hatch them? Help please!

 

[E3lx]

What is the temp there? this is a big factor.
If you have an inc. set to correct humidity and temp levels, then you can put in some fertile eggs and hatch rate should be higher

 

[CarolynEarley]

Thanks for replying ... the temperature here has been 30+ but gradually cooling now to below 30. We have set up an incubator and they should be hatching from there tomorrow. However, we do like to let the hens do it naturally so advice on improving the successes would be appreciated.