Crummy hatch with spendy eggs

[seventreesfarm]

Just wanted to gripe about the poor hatch

I bought 2 dozen New Hampshire eggs from a great breeder and was so excited to start working with this breed. My last shipped egg hatch did really well for all the travel and air cell damage, so I figured it was worth the risk to pay more for these eggs.

But out of the 17 that went into lockdown, only 4 hatched. One pipped and died. The rest....nothing.

The 21st day was Friday night, so the bator is still running just in case, but I don't think any more will hatch.

I was worried part of the problem was that I ran the temps on the lower side of the range, more like 99-100 than 99.5-100.5. My last couple hatches were a bit early and I had a couple chicks not absorb their yolks, so I thought slightly cooler would be better. So maybe that didn't help. I'm not an eggtopsy person, though I know it's helpful in solving hatch issues. Just can't do it.

But all 3 of my Oliver eggs hatched perfectly....

Anyway, 4 New Hamps is not enough to start a flock, so I have another dz being sent from a diff breeder next week. Fingers crossed.

 

[seventreesfarm]

Forgot to add a peeper pic! 4 yellow cuties, 2 silvers, and 1 dark grey. Cute and already zipping around the baby coop like they own the place.

 

[annanimal]

Your chicks are adorable, i am really sorry that the eggs didnt hatch and you had to pay so much for them. Better luck next time.

 

[seventreesfarm]

I just did the float test and eliminated all but 5. So for some reason, a good portion didn't get into position at lockdown, and the aircells stayed the same size. The shells were hard to see through, but there were plenty with bum cells, so no real surprise.

 

[animallover505]

What breeds are the chicks? You said you only have 4 hatch, so...

 

[seventreesfarm]

28 new hampshires > 17 into lockdown > 4 hatched > 1 pipped but died > 5 eggs still incubating

3 olivers > 3 into lockdown > 3 hatched

Someone who got new hampshire eggs from the same breeder had 13 out of 18 hatch, so it's either shipping trauma or something I did. The Oliver eggs are homegrown, so no shipping and very fresh.

 

[animallover505]

oh, ok

 

[seventreesfarm]

So I pulled the plug on this hatch. 4 New Hamps and 3 Olivers.

I just updated my spreadsheet and noticed that the 4 NHs all average air cell loss of between 15.15% and 15.84%. The unhatched NHs were all over the map, from 10.77% to 22.76% air cell loss. Makes me think wonky air cells were more the problem than lower temps.

My home raised Olivers lost from 13.91% to 14.72%.

The 4 NH's all got poop-butt to some degree, but not the Olivers. The NHs also showed a little tiny belly botton, but not the Olivers.

But I'll get another shot when more NH eggs arrive this Thursday. Scrubbing down the incubator and assorted gear right now

 

[annanimal]

Sounds like you should just stick with the Olivers.

How are the chicks doing?? I hope your new batch of eggs is better than the last one...

 

[seventreesfarm]

The chickies are doing fine now. A little poopbutt on the New Hamps, but they are all scooting around like little bugs

I looked over all my hatch rates for the past few batches, and for shipped eggs I've gotten 62% for Ameraucanas from GA, 54% for B/B/S Marans from AL, 40% for Olivers from FL.

Homegrown eggs have been 75%, 38% (young roo), and 100%.

But yeah, the 14% rate for this batch was disheartening. I'm hoping the next hatch will be more like 50% which will give me enough for a starter flock. After that I'll be breeding from homegrown stock.