Low hatch rate?

[luna01]

I don't know what happened, my eggs were doing great, only about 4 died early or weren't fertile. And then on the hatch day only three eggs hatch from the dozen and a half chicken eggs I had incubating. I have the other eggs about two more days and nada. When I candled them all of them were dead. None had even piped. Which was crazy because they had just been candled the week before and looked so strong!!

Now I'm waiting for the duck eggs to hatch and from the half dozen of those, it went from two bad eggs, to two good eggs. And the good eggs are doing something really bizar! It looks like the embryo sack is shrinking if that makes sense. I can see the veins and there's a clear space between them and the air sack. Can someone tell me what going wrong?

 

[Norcal527]

Following because I just had the same thing happened recently. I think it's to do with the humidity being too high early on.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I don't know what happened, my eggs were doing great, only about 4 died early or weren't fertile. And then on the hatch day only three eggs hatch from the dozen and a half chicken eggs I had incubating. I have the other eggs about two more days and nada. When I candled them all of them were dead. None had even piped. Which was crazy because they had just been candled the week before and looked so strong!!

Now I'm waiting for the duck eggs to hatch and from the half dozen of those, it went from two bad eggs, to two good eggs. And the good eggs are doing something really bizar! It looks like the embryo sack is shrinking if that makes sense. I can see the veins and there's a clear space between them and the air sack. Can someone tell me what going wrong?

Sorry to hear about your recent poor hatch; very disappointing! I recently had a poor hatch and have been trying to troubleshoot. In my case, I think I got the temperature too high... they seemed to develop normally, but only 2/6 hatched, at least a day early. I opened the others on day 21 and two had died a few days before, while two fully developed embryos failed to pip, and were in beak over wing malposition, which I’ve read can indicate heat stress...

 

[luna01]

Sorry to hear about your recent poor hatch; very disappointing! I recently had a poor hatch and have been trying to troubleshoot. In my case, I think I got the temperature too high... they seemed to develop normally, but only 2/6 hatched, at least a day early. I opened the others on day 21 and two had died a few days before, while two fully developed embryos failed to pip, and were in beak over wing malposition, which I’ve read can indicate heat stress...

Another weird thing is that when I candeled the dead eggs I couldn't even see a clear chick form. It was just a huddled black mass, although that might just be because they were brown eggs.

 

[Norcal527]

On my hatch where they all made it to lockdown but didn't pip internally, I opened the top of the shell and the membrane seemed to have shriveled up and I think shrink wrapped but I'm not sure if that's because they had been dead for a day or two. Have you opened yours up? I didnt open the membrane as I'm too squeamish.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

On my hatch where they all made it to lockdown but didn't pip internally, I opened the top of the shell and the membrane seemed to have shriveled up and I think shrink wrapped but I'm not sure if that's because they had been dead for a day or two. Have you opened yours up? I didnt open the membrane as I'm too squeamish.

I opened mine. They did not seem shrink wrapped or too wet; I don’t think that humidity was my issue...

 

[luna01]

On my hatch where they all made it to lockdown but didn't pip internally, I opened the top of the shell and the membrane seemed to have shriveled up and I think shrink wrapped but I'm not sure if that's because they had been dead for a day or two. Have you opened yours up? I didnt open the membrane as I'm too squeamish.

Haven't opened mine. I know they just died but I have truama from a rotten egg poping all over my lol

 

[Uff Da]

Haven't opened mine. I know they just died but I have truama from a rotten egg poping all over my lol

I put my eggs in a ziplock baggie (quart size or larger makes it easier to maneuver the egg around) to do an eggtopsy. That way, if they are rotten, the mess and smell is contained. It can be pretty fiddly, but with patience you can get the shell off!