Chicks Dead After Hatch?

[BlueHorse17]

Hello! So we incubated twelve Serama eggs and seven of them hatched. The last two that hatched randomly died after about five hours in the brooder. They were eating, drinking, and had clear butts. Maybe just not fully developed internally?

 

[azygous]

If the eggs came from a private breeder or from your own flock, they could have been infected by an avian virus. I have lymphoid leucosis in my flock and the hen passes it to the embryo in the egg. Most of my eggs have never hatched but contained a dead embryo or even a fully developed dead chick.

Sometimes bacteria can get into the egg and cause fetal mortality.

And, genetics sometimes plays a role in these cases. The source of your hatching eggs should be carefully investigated, but there may be a problem with post hatch environment and care - hygiene or temperature.

 

[BlueHorse17]

If the eggs came from a private breeder or from your own flock, they could have been infected by an avian virus. I have lymphoid leucosis in my flock and the hen passes it to the embryo in the egg. Most of my eggs have never hatched but contained a dead embryo or even a fully developed dead chick.

Sometimes bacteria can get into the egg and cause fetal mortality.

And, genetics sometimes plays a role in these cases. The source of your hatching eggs should be carefully investigated, but there may be a problem with post hatch environment and care - hygiene or temperature.

Thank you for the information! I will go ahead and mention it to the breeder. I also ended up getting duck eggs from the same person and two of them died shortly after being born as well. Out of those duck eggs (there was about 40) only six even bothered hatching.

 

[casportpony]

Sorry for your loss. I think the most common cause of death in hatchlings is Mushy Chick Disease (Omphalitis). Double check that your incubator, hatcher, & broader are properly sterilized. I've also found that incubating at too high humidity can cause this too. What humidity do you incubate at?

 

[BlueHorse17]

Sorry for your loss. I think the most common cause of death in hatchlings is Mushy Chick Disease (Omphalitis). Double check that your incubator, hatcher, & broader are properly sterilized. I've also found that incubating at too high humidity can cause this too. What humidity do you incubate at?

Normally humidity lingers around 60-65%. I had three incubators running during this hatching session. The first had some Cascade ducklings, which hatched out great. Got them from Person A. The second incubator had Muscovy ducklings, and the third had the Seramas.

Got the Muscovy and Seramas from Person B. The Muscovy and the Seramas had two chicks that died each, shortly after hatching. The Muscovy incubator had 42 eggs and only five bothered to hatch. None of these incubators I ever used before. All were brand new.

 

[casportpony]

What type of incubators are they?

 

[BlueHorse17]

What type of incubators are they?

So this first incubator is the one that I hatched the Cascades out of. I felt it was a piece of junk and I got it last minute when someone was going to get rid of fertile duck eggs. The incubator shut off on me twice, the temperature kept jumping by one degree, and the humidity kept drastically changing. However, despite that, 12 eggs hatched out of 15.

This second incubator had the Muscovy eggs. Forty-two eggs with five that hatched. Two of them died shortly after being hatched. I did notice when I was candling them that a lot of the embryos ended up sticking. I noticed when the eggs “rotated”, they kind of just moved back and forth, not rolled over. I don’t know if that matters much.

This third incubator had the Seramas. Out of the twelve eggs, seven hatched and two of them died shortly after hatching.