Counting my chickens before they hatch!

[riftnreef]

OK, I am indeed familiar with the old addage, but being new to incubating eggs I'm curious about this. I started with 8 Serama eggs, and after candleing(sp?) at one week, only one was not developing and that got me to wondering... Speaking in approximate percentages and without any unforseen problems, at what point in development do most problems occur? Is there a specific point during incubation that you can start to count on them hatching?...or is it a crap shoot all the way through?

 

[eggsrcool]

I have always thought within the first 72 hours you are most likely to get deaths, I read it from somewhere, also I think later on in the cycle after 18 days becuase of the risk of drowning etc..

 

[Happy Chooks]

I have only hatched once.

I started with 12 eggs that were shipped. Of those, 1 ended up with a blood ring (early quitter) and 4 either never developed or quit very early. (I broke them open and it looked like a couple quit the first couple of days) So 7 eggs made it to lock down for hatching. Of those 7, 5 of them hatched. The other 2 never pipped (not even into the air sac) and died in their shell.

 

[Jess N Jeff]

In my hatchings I've noticed with shipped eggs that I get a 20-40% hatch rate. I have had it up to 80% from local eggs I picked up myself.

Of the shipped eggs the majority either never were fertile or had blood rings by first candeling. I would say about 70%. The rest were either partial development(1/2 way) or chicks that quit right before braking inner membrane. I did have 1 duck that pipped and then died. When I oppened the egg I saw that he was missing his feet. I guess mother nature knew he would not fare well if he lived through hatching.