A lot of chicks malpositioned

[mgardner]

So I put 23 eggs into lockdown. 11 hatched. So after day 24 I candled, there was no movement. So I put a little hole in the air cell. They were all dead. So when I opened them 7 were upside down. One was right side up and had pipped internally but never got past that. And the other 4 died about a week ago probably. I'm happy I got 11 healthy chicks but less than 50% hatch rate seems like a bummer. And is there a reason SO many were upside down? When I got them the lady I picked them up from she had them stored wrong, big side down. But I fixed it immediately. Would this have anything to do with it? Thanks for your input

 

[cmfarm]

It really doesn't matter that much how you store them. Did they look dried out, or was the membrane dried out? It could be a # of things. Maybe the chicks got too big too fast.