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I have run into a small problem. After about 6 months and $15K I have acquired everything I can fit and get away with with my indoor breeding program. I have never breed before, but my wife has about 10 years experience.

What happens is that the eggs develop normally but about a week before hatch, they die. The inside turns yellow/ orange / grey and get somewhat cloudy. Now that I think about it, the membrane may also be broken.

I have ruled out temperature, humidity and proper turning. We have had the parents tested and nothing abnormal was found. The affected eggs are from Ringnecks, Alexandrines, and Quakers. More interesting, not all of the eggs are lost. Quaker clutch of 8, one made it. Caiques clutch of 5, 1 infertile, 2 lost, 1 hatch and the other about to hatch. One pair of Ringnecks, clutch of 5, 5 babies.

I have no problems with fertile eggs from my Cockatiels - well other than the parents not even sitting on the eggs, or stomping a chick after swapping dummies for an about to hatch. I have been waking up every 60-90 minutes for the last 4 months :p No problems at all with my Meyers pairs.

If anyone can shed some light on this for me I would appreciate it.

I'm going to pre-suppose everything is right as you mentioned. Temp and humidity is correct as well as turns. You must have a computer controlled incubator like I do. So, what's going on?

Let's go back to what the hen normally does. She gets up from the clutch every so often and feeds. So what's the difference with a computer controlled enviorment? There is no let up, or cool down as R-com told me when I came into this exact problem. So what did I do?

Everyday, while I'm feeding some other baby, I pull the top off the computer controlled incubator and let it cool naturally. It gives me the nasty beeping sounds, but ever since I've gone to 100% hatchability.

Also be sure to open all your eggs and do a breeder necroposy of the undeveloped egg. This way it will tell you at what stage the egg failed. If it went to full development but failed to pip and hatch then you have another problem. See your vet for help on this one.

I have a funky, yet very solid styrofoam unit for incubation. I pulled a few of the eggs from cold storage and opened them up underwater, they all looked around 15-18 days developed. Some discoloration (maybe?) of the yolk and little to no albumen. The discoloration was probably from storage. I shared my troubles with another local breeder and they mentioned gram negative. So I came home and googled around. gram negative can be a lot of things, as it is just a staining method, so I am a bit lost on what that narrows down to in Aviculture. Most of my birds that are having this issue are now out of season, but I am running 7-on/7-off cycles of sulfamethoxide around 3% in their drinking water. I would really like to get the bottom of this