Help! Only 1 out of 25 eggs hatched!

[HeatherKellyB]

Whenever I tried incubating upright (I should add that I didn't lay them down, so that was probably my problem), I cut up an egg carton to make each cell individual. I trimmed the sides WAY down and removed a large circle in the bottom. You don't want to restrict airflow, humidity, or temperature. I "hand turned" 3 to 5 times a day as it must be an odd number. To "turn" the upright eggs, I would very gently tilt them to one side and the next turn, tilt to the other side.

I've had the best luck with my Nurture Right 360 and Brinsea. I really like them both. I did have to move the incubator to a spare draft free, not bothered room to control temp and still check temps and humidity with a calibrated independent thermometer and hygrometer very often all throughout incubation

 

[ladybrasa]

I am not an expert and am working on my first hatch with shipped eggs. They have not hatched yet. However, I’m going into lockdown in a day and a half approximately 10 eggs out of 15. (One yolker, 3 blood rings; don’t wanna assume all are okay tomorrow night.. not counting the three that were already questionable when I got them) Anyway, so far so good, so things I did was allow to rest blunt end up for about a day. All air cells were only a little jiggly. Have an Inkbird thermostat and three digital thermometer/hygrometer combos, one of which tells the day’s high and lows. I decided to keep them upright ... ish in the incubator, like happens at hatcheries and large cabinet incubators. I have a wedge glued to the middle of a cut up egg carton and tilt them at roughly 45 degree angles three times a day. I’ve read some scientific abstract somewhere that ideal tilt needs to be 45 (+\- 5 degrees). Anything more or less will result in a smaller hatch. Obviously a million things can happen between right now and day 21, but so far things appear on track.

One thing I didn’t do was outline the air cells in pencil as they went along. I feel it is important to inspect the air cells on shipped eggs right from the start.

 

[ChristinLewin]

Got All of them today (a day early! Yay!) and inspected all of the air cells. Only one was visible and on the side of one of the Wyandotte eggs so it’s been marked and I will continue to watch it. I suppose the air cells will be more visible as they sit at room temp overnight

 

[MGG]

Got All of them today (a day early! Yay!) and inspected all of the air cells. Only one was visible and on the side of one of the Wyandotte eggs so it’s been marked and I will continue to watch it. I suppose the air cells will be more visible as they sit at room temp overnight

Sounds good!

 

[ladybrasa]

I didn’t quite see the air cells either at first (didn’t help it wasn’t in darkness) right out of the box, at least on the ones that were still attached, despite all being light brown to white. The air cells were very small (suggestive of freshness) and if I tilted a little or just gave a little (extremely gently!) little jiggle, I could see the edge of the cell jiggle to get an idea where it was.

Hopefully that means the air cells are attached and small for you!

 

[ChristinLewin]

I didn’t quite see the air cells either at first (didn’t help it wasn’t in darkness) right out of the box, at least on the ones that were still attached, despite all being light brown to white. The air cells were very small (suggestive of freshness) and if I tilted a little or just gave a little (extremely gently!) little jiggle, I could see the edge of the cell jiggle to get an idea where it was.

Hopefully that means the air cells are attached and small for you!

Let’s hope!!

 

[TheBajan]

Let’s hope!!

I also have a very hard time seeing the air sac prior to incubation. I think it means they are pretty fresh

 

[koatree]

Quick recap:
Bought eggs on eBay end of May, 3 different sellers
1. Out of 13 Wyandotte eggs, 3 hatched and all are doing well. Most didn’t make it past day 7 or weren’t fertile, but we did have one make it to lockdown, pipped and then just stopped and died. We cracked the egg and it was a totally perfect RLB Wyandotte, yolk absorbed, just dead.
2. Out of 10 Blue Barnevelder eggs, 7 hatched, two died, 5 are alive and well BUT I didn’t get the Blue Barnie, just splash and silver Barnie
3. Out of 12 Barnyard Mix, 5 hatched, 3 had severe deformities (like half the brain exposed) and had to be culled and 2 are doing well. I’m pretty sure This seller has a bad inbreeding problem so obviously I won’t buy from her again.

to be noted: the Barnyard Mix came from Michigan and were lost in the postal system for almost a week so I wasn’t surprised at the low hatch rate. The other 2 dozen I received 2 day shipping from Florida and Louisiana (I’m in Maryland). All eggs settled for 24 hours at room temp before incubation. Humidity was 40-50% and then upped to 65% for hatch.

Fast forward a month. Determined to hatch a Blue Barnevelder and after reading about Dry Hatching, I ordered another batch of eggs, this time a huge selection of rare breeds, 3 Deathlayer, 2 Pavlovskaya, 3 Ayam Cemani, 4 Brabanter, 3 Araucana, 3 Isbar, 4 Silver Barnevelder And 3 Blue Barnevelder For a total of 25 eggs (not cheap, as you can imagine with the rare breeds) Shipped from Florida arrived July 3rd and started dry hatch July 4, even went as far as to cut tiny egg holders to start them standing up and secure their air cells better. The first 7 days, I did not rotate them or open the incubator and my humidity was around 25-30% for first 18 days. After reading a ton here on BYC about shipped eggs and how to repair the shifty air cells with shipped eggs, I was confident that I would have a better hatch rate this time. It was Far WORSE!!

i candled at Day 7,14,18 and little by little they started dying off. I expected that somewhat because they are shipped eggs but I was heartbroken when the last of the Blue Barnevelder quit around day 12

Around Day 10, I realized that the eggs weren’t turning automatically for some reason so I would turn them by pushing the rotate button on the incubator, but I’m sure it wasn’t hourly or even close to hourly.

Out of 25 fertile shipped eggs, only ONE hatched and that was only with assistance!!!


At lockdown I candled and had hope for 2 Silver Barnevelder, 1 Ayam Cemani, 1 Brabanter, and the 3 “control group” eggs I had added at the beginning from my own hens and roosters just as a test. I had 5 originally but 2 were infertile so only 3 went to Lockdown. All together, 30 eggs were started July 4th and yesterday we finished the hatch with 4 total chicks, 3 from the control group, and one Silver Barnevelder. Yup. One chick from the 25 that shipped to me. I call them my “hundred dollar chicken” now

Of course I’m upset with the whole failed hatch and because I’m a sucker for punishment, I ordered half a dozen Blue Barnevelder, 9 RLB Wyandotte, and 9 Isbar (new seller but across the country so I don’t have high hopes).
I am giving shipped eggs one more chance and would love any tips or tricks to get a better batch this time!!

2 of the packages are at the post office now(Isbar and Wyandotte) and the other package will be there tomorrow(Barnevelder) I will start incubation Wednesday after the Tuesday eggs have a day to rest.

That’s a lot of backstory but I wanted to add as much detail as possible to try and help hatch shipped eggs with better than 1/25

Help!!!

Get a good broody hen like a silkie or Orpington. My silkies have 100% hatch rates

 

[Rooapalooza]

I didn't read this whole thread but do you think the eggs are getting too hot during shipping? Especially if they are coming from the south, I would think they might either start growing then dying prior to delivery or actually get cooked in the truck. I think you would have better luck waiting until fall.

 

[Rooapalooza]

Also I hate to say it but I think it's a bit cruel to keep trying to hatch without figuring out what the problem is first.
I don't know what your area is like but it's probable that you could find at least some of those rare breed chicks/eggs within driving distance, which should eliminate your problems, if your control groups have verified that there isn't anything wrong with your incubator.