Bad luck hatching sex link eggs

[BarnGoddess01]

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Thank you for responding! I really would like to understand this better.

They are all on the same food - and it is a premium layer ration, free choice. The sex links are higher in the flock than the EEs so they eat when they want. The sex links are a year older than the EEs. One thing I have noticed with the sex links, they don't seem to quit laying for anything. They are like egg laying machines. I have one literally half bald because of moulting. The new feathers are coming in VERY slowly - and she doesn't miss a day of laying. She looks like a battery hen! Rough. My Barred Rock hen has been on moulting holidays for about 6 weeks now - and sports a lovely new crop of feathers. I've noticed that the EEs also quit laying whenever there are feathers to be grown. The whole flock gets yogurt daily as well. Free-ranging here might be a bit of an issue because I have a couple of wild bird feeders. The favourite spot of all the hens is under those feeders. No doubt that seed throws their numbers off.

The other thing I have noticed about my sex link eggs - doesn't matter how old I let them get - when hard boiled those light brown shells still won't peel off clean. Whereas the EE eggs and my BR eggs peel when hard boiled as long as they are a few days old. I don't even bother hard boiling my sex link eggs now.

 

[spiritdance]

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Were they pullet eggs? Sometimes pullet eggs are too small for the chicks and they can't move to pip. This is why many people avoid using pullet eggs for hatching.

My bad ... I should have read your post more closely. Still, it sounds like the eggs were too small for the chicks.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Were they pullet eggs? Sometimes pullet eggs are too small for the chicks and they can't move to pip. This is why many people avoid using pullet eggs for hatching.

My bad ... I should have read your post more closely. Still, it sounds like the eggs were too small for the chicks.

2 year old hens. Well established layers. They weren't small eggs. In fact, these eggs were larger than all my EEs. Might the thinner shells have allowed them to grow too big for the shells? My hatch did start early - on day 19 in fact. The one chick that has survived is the biggest in my brooders!

 

[FireTigeris]

maybe the eggs were too large-

they couldn't reach to push out?

 

[dsqard]

To judge if your humidity is too high or too low during incubation, I suggest using this chart.

It is hard to determine what humidity is right for you since where you live will dictate what it should be set at. Check the eggs at 7, 14 and 18 days to look at the air cell and adjust humidity as needed.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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If we eliminate the sex links from my hatch, my hatch rate was 85% so the humidity couldn't have been too far off for most of my eggs (BCMs, Ameraucanas, and EEs). However, I have a 20% hatch rate with the sex links. Same roos as the EEs, same flock, and conditions.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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They chicks actually seemed too big for their shells. One pipped, for example, but didn't zip. I helped after two days of watching a beak in the hole. The chick did make it out eventually but it had a bad leg. I'll never know if the bad leg prevented the zipping or if the bad leg resulted from too long in the shell after pipping.

The other eggs that didn't hatch made sense; BCM egg was clear, Ameraucana egg had a blood ring, one EE pipped the wrong end, another EE zipped half way - I helped. It never did absorb the yoke sac. The sex link eggs had fully formed chicks inside that had made no attempt to pip or hatch.