10 of 42 fully developed no pip DEAD. one PIP then died.

[a4e82bad]

I am looking to find out why my 10 chicks fully developed and did not hatch the other 32 did. They were all in a hobavator1602N with a fan and and eleftronic thermomeater and hygrometer. Humidity was 40% for first 18 days and 65%ish for last 3. 32 hatched fine. i opened the ones that did not hatch and air cells looked good for size. but chicks never broke in to them. Nor did they pip. but they were dead. Looked fully developed not to wet or dry. What are your thoughts?

 

[Squawkbox]

My thoughts are that it is just one of those things. They for whatever reason did not hatch. If it was the whole bunch then I'd say it was temp/humidity etc, but since you got 32 hatch and 10 failed, that's a good ratio to me! Sorry about the dead ones though

 

[nurse_turtle]

Nature happens. Sometimes I think if the chick is not positioned just right, the egg tooth can't pip the shell. Sometimes they can puncture their own yolk sac or blood vessels. Unseen congenital defects could be present. Only the strong survive...

Your incubation stats sound perfect and the fact that they all developed so well would indicate so. You had a 76% hatch rate which in a really good percentage. The chances of a perfect 100% hatch decreases as the number of eggs incubated increases. I just completed a 7 of 7 perfect hatch followed by a 16 of 21 hatch. Human nature dictates that we want answers, solid, concrete answers. That very same nature also teases us with inexplicable mysteries.

I dance for your chicks!

 

[a4e82bad]

Ya I was also wondering if all the bad eggs came from the same hen. But not really a good way to tell. i dont have the time to watch all day. Can you dye the vent of a chicken and get color marks on all its eggs? LOL

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Believe it or not, you can! On the Ameraucana Club forum, there are some members who've posted about using food coloring/dye on the vents of their hens to see which hens lay which eggs. That forum is open for guests to view, so you could search those postings and find the ones about it.