anyone have trouble hatching ameraucanas?

[hart31]

I ended up with 15 live chicks out of my last batch. I had 5 fully formed chicks which died in the shell. One was a spitzhauben, one was an araucana, and 3 were americauna. Most the rest of the spitzhaubens either did not develop or hatched ok, I had 3 araucana eggs, one hatched, one got broke when candling. All 3 of the ameraucana eggs I had were the same shade of olive green, very opaque and difficult to candle. All were dead in the shell and were very tight (filled the shell, not stuck) in the shell.

The welsummers, black sumatras, and silkies all hatched or failed to develop at all.

Overall for an order for 24+ eggs which were shipped in January and arrived when the temp was -35F and a new, homemade incubator, I am happy with 15 live chicks.
Most hatched on day 21, with the last two on day 22.

 

[McSpin]

By your description, I would say you had a very successful hatch. On my first hatching, I had one strain where the eggs did what you described - fully formed chicks that didn't pip. The next batch, I increased the humidity on the last 3 days, and they all hatched. Problems are often attributed to little variances from ideal temperature or humidity.

 

[MissPrissy]

15 live chicks from 24 eggs is a fairly good hatch rate if you had several clear eggs.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Thats a good hatch for shipped....

 

[Katy]

I'd be jumping up and down if I got 15 out of 24 of shipped eggs to hatch!!

 

[hart31]

It wasn't quite that good. I paid for 24 chicken eggs but actually got 34 chicken eggs and 6 muscovy eggs.
I chicken egg was badly cracked during shipping. So I started with 33 chicken eggs.

Only one of the muscovy eggs is developing and I know the humidity has been way too low for it. I now have it in a separate incubator.

Not all my shipped eggs have been as good. I got 16 silkie eggs shipped the same day as the ones just hatched. They arrived one day later and were frozen solid! The sender offered to send my another batch for just the shipping cost. They came yesterday, having been 5 days in route this time. Three of these were cracked and I can't see air sacs in any of them! I'm afraid they either froze but not to the breaking point or got badly shaken somewhere along the line!

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Well, Let's hope another batch gets to you in good shape this week then