incomplete egg hatching

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fishingmate

fishingmate

Hatching
Apr 16, 2016
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hi, i'm new to this forum, although i've been reading backyard chickens for several years. i'm hoping someone can help me with my egg hatching problem. i have a wonderful broody hen who has raised several clutches of chicks for me. usually i just buy day old chicks and put them under her in the middle of the night and she is a happy mama the next morning. this time i chose to let her incubate some of our eggs. 3 chicks hatched just fine on day 21. 3 more got part way out of the shells and then died. i did a bit of searching online and found that low humidity was the probable culprit. i have been using mini flakes for bedding and i'm wondering if the drying ability of the chips could be the problem. any ideas or suggestions? thanks so much.
 
I'm sorry for your hatching disappointment but, broody hens and bedding aren't the cause of their death. Incubator deaths can be the result of too little humidity - chickens get shrink wrapped and stuck in the shell. Or too much humidity in a incubator can cause drowned chicks. Some folks will open left over eggs and do a "chick-topsy," to figure out why they died etc. Sometimes hatched chicks are too big for the egg and can't maneuver a way out. Others may been positioned badly or had some genetic problem that causes their demise.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC - you have some great advice already so I'll just say hello!

All the best
CT
 
thanks so much for your information. it makes me feel much better that i didn't do something to the eggs/chicks. thanks again.
 

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