I put 14 eggs into lockdown -- one dubious on candling -- and hatched 10.
The dubious was indeed undeveloped, but of the other three two of them had externally-pipped and one had internally pipped.
Eggtopsy revealed that none had finished absorbing the yolk.
What are the possible causes?
Temperature and humidity had remained constant though I did have to briefly open the incubator twice to remove hatched chicks. But in so doing I didn't lift the lid off the NR360, only had my son tilt it up just far enough for me to get my hand in and rapidly scoop out the dry chicks.
These first two had externally pipped:
This chick was from an egg with a wonky air cell way down the side but it had internally pipped into the air cell. 2 photos. The flesh of this one had a weird, red color compared to the other two and previous DIS chicks from previous hatches.
I suppose that what I really need to know is if it's likely to be anything *I* did to create a poor environment or if it's more likely to be genetic?
Since 4 of the chicks hatched on day 19^ I had to get them out of the incubator and into the brooder but took every precaution to keep the humidity from dropping excessively.
^I suspect pre-incubation since I had broodies and could only collect eggs once a day after work because neither husband nor son are willing to risk being bitten by vicious nest-defenders.
The dubious was indeed undeveloped, but of the other three two of them had externally-pipped and one had internally pipped.
Eggtopsy revealed that none had finished absorbing the yolk.
What are the possible causes?
Temperature and humidity had remained constant though I did have to briefly open the incubator twice to remove hatched chicks. But in so doing I didn't lift the lid off the NR360, only had my son tilt it up just far enough for me to get my hand in and rapidly scoop out the dry chicks.
These first two had externally pipped:
1 photo of #1
2 photos of #2
2 photos of #2
This chick was from an egg with a wonky air cell way down the side but it had internally pipped into the air cell. 2 photos. The flesh of this one had a weird, red color compared to the other two and previous DIS chicks from previous hatches.
I suppose that what I really need to know is if it's likely to be anything *I* did to create a poor environment or if it's more likely to be genetic?
Since 4 of the chicks hatched on day 19^ I had to get them out of the incubator and into the brooder but took every precaution to keep the humidity from dropping excessively.
^I suspect pre-incubation since I had broodies and could only collect eggs once a day after work because neither husband nor son are willing to risk being bitten by vicious nest-defenders.
