Eggs hatched (Pictures)

[L&Schickens]

I ordered eggs from a member here and all 15 arrived in good shape. 9 developed to full term, but only 3 managed to peep and hatch. I don't know why the other 6 did not ever peep, but they died in the shells. I left them in the incubator a few extra days just to be sure, but nope. They did not hatch. I checked them and they had full term chicks in them. So I don't know what happened, but they died in the shells.
The 3 that did hatch were perfectly normal in the way they did and one is just a jumbo compaired to the other two. One has big beautiful eyes.
They are rumpless Auracanas (SP?)

 

[twigg]

The ones you have look great

Possible reasons for Dead-in-shell:

Humidity too high (rare)
Humidity too low
Temp. fluctuations
Poor stock (genetics or nutrition)
Bacterial Infection
Poor ventilation.

If the humidity is too high during incubation, then the eggs will not lose sufficient weight, and the air space will be too small for the chicks to breathe properly before pipping.

If it is too high after internal pipping, then the chicks can drown before they hatch.

If the humidity is too low then the eggs will lose too much weight, and the chicks not develop properly. If it is too low after pipping the membranes can be too tough to break, and the chick can get stuck to them preventing the chick turning in the shell.

Temperature needs to be fairly stable throughout. During the last three days, the chicks generate considerable heat and too high temps. are more dangerous than too low.

The parent stock needs to be genetically healthy and be in good physical condition (kinda garbage in/garbage out)

Hygiene is important. Bacteria, while present everywhere, can, on occassion, devastate a hatch.

Chicks require a good deal of oxygen. Sometimes hatches can fail due to insufficient ventilation inadvertantly caused by closing vents to raise humidity

hope this helps

 

[L&Schickens]

I think it may have been a ventilation problem. I kept a towel over the incubator to help keep the heat in. I bet that was it. Bummer! I could have totally prevented that from happening. Ho well. I am happy with my 3 little guys. I could just kick my self over that! Thanks for bringing that up. It will help with the next hatch.

 

[monarc23]

Those three are adorable

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

That and opening the incubator to take the pictures probably wasn't a good idea either. When you opened the egg shells what did the membrane look like? Was it shriveled and shrunken around the chick?

I didn't know this until I read a "dry incubation" article, but sometimes when you open the incubator it can suck out the humidity and cause the chick to dye in the shell usually within two to three minutes. So if you opened it to take a picture of the first egg that pipped, you could have in turn done the others more worse than good...

 

[Birch Run Farm]

More than likely your incubator did just fine. True araucanas have a fatal gene and there is a releltively high mortality rate particularly on eggs from tufted to tufted parent birds. This should have been explained to you. It is the chance we take with this breed but some chicks die in the shell.

Trust me I know the frustration! Your hatched chicks look great!

I have a hatch going on right now too.

 

[BirdBoy88]

Congrats on the babies

 

[miss_jayne]

oh, now i seriously want an incubator! aaaaghhhh.....

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
You have 263 chickens....AND YOU DONT HAVE AN INCUBATOR YET!

You might oughtta rethink that decision, otherwise you'll end up with 1,263!!! LOL

 

[MagsC]

I LOVE the look of those Auracana babies!