day 20, 3 eggs rocking, 1 hatch now day 23

[tara2503]

I know this has probably already been posted, but I have 2 different batches in 1 incubator. the first batch only 1 hatched (only 5 eggs in first batch)on day 22, even after 3 were rocking on day 20. The batches are 4 days apart. I did everything to standards. Was there too much humidity in the incubator? Why did the other 2 stop and not hatch? It's obvious that there was success as I have a beautiful chick in the brooder right now, but what happened to the other 2? The second batch is on day 20, so I do not want to open up the bator if I do not have to, but I had to to get the chick into the brooder. I have read of people having success with having more than 1 batch in the bator. I candled the 2 that were rocking and they hadn't even internally pipped. THOUGHTS on why they did not hatch?
Thanks in advance.

 

[HumbleHen207]

Sometimes they are just weak and they quit right before hatch. Its really pretty common. The two biggest culprits of this situation however are shrink wrapping, and malposition. What is the humidity level in your incubator? I would recommend water candling the two eggs, its the best way to determine if mostly developed eggs are still alive. Fill a deep dish full of warm water (about 100 degrees), and float the questionable eggs, if they wobble in the water they are alive, if they just float they are dead. It wont hurt them if they are still alive, opening the incubator once or twice wont hurt anything, just keep the humidity up.

 

[lazy gardener]

Have you read the learning center articles on hatching? Hatching 101 is an entire course, covering all aspects regarding incubation. I wouldn't even plug in an incubator unless I've read the entire section. That will answer questions you don't even know you have, and give you the tools to make your next hatch a great success.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

The best way to garner knowledge as to what happened is to do eggtopsies on them if they are indeed dead. You can learn a lot by the position of the chick, the wetness of the chick, the stage the chick is in, (has it absorbed any or all of the yolk). There's not always a definitive answer, but a lot of times you can get an idea of what may have caused their demise.

My first hatch I had 17 go into lockdown, all moving. I had one hatcher at day 24 (that lived) and one at day 25 (that died). The other 15 had been viable at day 18- but they were behind developementally (bad thermometer=low temps in the bator). It was actually a miracle that one survived. (My bator was 6 degrees low and I didn't know it.)