Delayed hatch?

[Chicken Love]

Hi, I set 24 eggs at 9 PM on July 21. Had 3 hatch on day 20 (Friday) and 1 on day 21 (Sat). Today is Sunday and nothing. Any chance we might see some more? I am having doubts as to the air circulation in my bator. Chicks that do hatch are very strong and healthy, but my hatches are pathetic, at best, numbers-wise. Advice?

 

[chrisandmelissa]

if they hatched a day early the temp was to hot

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are several things that can affect if they hatch early or late. Heredity, humidity, size of the egg, how and how long they were stored before you started incubation, several things. The big one is the average incubating temperature. If you eggs are consistently a day or so early, this is probably it. One day early or late is not that big a deal. I would not worry about it at all. If your incubator is consistently early or late with a bigger spread, I'd suggest you look at adjusting the temperature just a bit.

I don't know how you are counting the days. On my calendar July 21 is a Friday. Day 21, the day they should hatch, would be Friday August 10. It sounds to me that your eggs hatched right on time. The day of the week you start them is the day of the week chicken eggs should hatch, in your case Friday. But due to all the different things that can affect exactly when they do hatch, several hours either side of that exact time you set them is perfectly normal. Average incubating temperature does not seem to be your problem.

There are a lot of different things that can cause bad hatches, way too many for me to even guess with basically no information. You are looking at them. I'm not. You have some ideas of what may have happened to the eggs before you started incubating. I don't. What I suggest is that you open the unhatched eggs to see what the development is. Maybe you can get some clues as to what you need to change for your next try. This incubation troubleshooting guide may help.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

It's not always easy to determine what the problem is. Hopefully this troubleshooting guide will help you out. Good luck!!!

 

[Chicken Love]

I counted Friday the 10th as day 20 b/c I set them so late in the day. I have had similiar results before, and have opened the eggs to find chicks at several different stages of development. My daughter has noticed that it seems that eggs in a certain part of the bator seem to hatch well, when other areas don't.
Eggs sat for less than 7 days in our crawl space, which is cool, but not cold, about 16C. I made sure to collect "perfect" looking eggs - not too long or round, no weirdness about them.

We did have 2 brief power outages, lasting about 1 hr each, on day 18 and 21, where the bator temp dipped to 27C.

I gave 24 eggs to a friend to hatch in her bator and she got 16 healthy chicks, so that's what makes me think it's the bator and not heredity or otherwise.

Should i wait another day to see if any more hatch or do you all think it's a done deal?

 

[Ridgerunner]

16 degrees C is about 60 degrees F so that is pretty good. It's better than I usually manage. It might help to turn them while you are waiting to incubate, but I really doubt that is a significant problem.

What kind of incubator do you have? Still air or forced air? It's possible the temperature varies in different parts, especially if it is a still air. You could be right about the exchange of oxygen not being great in parts of your incubator. There are just so many different things that could affect it.

Short power outages like that are not going to be a problem. It takes a lot longer than that for the core temperature in the egg to drop enough to cause any problem.

I can't pinpoint anything from here. Since your friend had a decent hatch, it does indicate there is some problem either with your incubator or your incubating technique. You sound like you know what you're doing. Is there a way to borrow your friend's incubator and try it?

As for these eggs, it is probably over for them. You can maybe do the float test. Put them in a pan or bucket of still water. They should all float. If you see the egg wiggling like there is a live chick inside it, the egg should have a live chick in it. If the eggs float dead calm,ther eis no live chick inside. If the egg is pipped you can't do this. It would just fill with water.

 

[Chicken Love]

yea. that's what I thought. Our bator is an older brower model; not sure if it's still or forced air. This will be our last hatch for this year. I hope to get whatever the problem is ironed out by spring. sigh. Thanks for your help, ridgerunner.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If it's a still air, it's important where you measure the temperature. Hot air rises so you can get quite a bit of difference depending on where you take it. The temperature in a still air needs to be around 101.5 F (38.5 C) measured at the top of the eggs. In a forced air, the temperature should be 99.5 F (37.5 C) anywhere inside. The fan should keep the air moving and keep it all a constant temperature.

I'm not familiar with your model, but maybe you can measure the temperature high and low and see how much difference you get.