Eggs not developing - please help me figure out what's wrong

[kodster]

The eggs are not fertile. They look like they've been sitting too long, to me, and that's what is making the germinal disc look like they're appearing. There are several possible reasons, and it may be the 'Perfect Storm' of all of these reasons that you're not getting them. Two reasons are that the hens are hybrids and their age. It's harder to get fertile eggs from hybrids, and these were bred to produce eggs for consumption, not reproduction. This is why many hatcheries tell you when they sell these birds as chicks, that they are hybrids and will not be easy to breed and have chicks. Like humans, chickens only have so many ova to produce eggs in their lifetimes, and these have been bred to produce as many eggs as possible in the shortest period of time. They're nearing the end of their production, which is why they were put up for 'rescues'. So, the closer they are to the end, the less likely you're going to see fertile eggs produced. The rooster may or may not be mating with them, as well, but if the eggs are not as viable to being fertilized, it's not taken inside the hen, and therein lies your problem.

Also, no matter WHAT the manufacturer says about their incubators, ALWAYS TEST the temperature and humidity readings with independent thermometers and hygrometers! I had the same problem with the incubator I purchased to start hatching my own eggs, knew they were fertile, et al, and my development rate/hatch rate was dismal. Turns out that even though the readings from the built-in equipment said they were spot on, they were actually about 2.5 degrees off... too low, and that was what affected my success. I tested it independently, adjusted it accordingly, and voila! Close to 100% success rate! So, please do not 'assume' that the manufacturer is correct. They will ALWAYS tell you there's nothing wrong with their equipment because they don't want any negative connotations and have you return their products.

 

[VlkStinu]

The eggs are not fertile. They look like they've been sitting too long, to me, and that's what is making the germinal disc look like they're appearing. There are several possible reasons, and it may be the 'Perfect Storm' of all of these reasons that you're not getting them. Two reasons are that the hens are hybrids and their age. It's harder to get fertile eggs from hybrids, and these were bred to produce eggs for consumption, not reproduction. This is why many hatcheries tell you when they sell these birds as chicks, that they are hybrids and will not be easy to breed and have chicks. Like humans, chickens only have so many ova to produce eggs in their lifetimes, and these have been bred to produce as many eggs as possible in the shortest period of time. They're nearing the end of their production, which is why they were put up for 'rescues'. So, the closer they are to the end, the less likely you're going to see fertile eggs produced. The rooster may or may not be mating with them, as well, but if the eggs are not as viable to being fertilized, it's not taken inside the hen, and therein lies your problem.

Also, no matter WHAT the manufacturer says about their incubators, ALWAYS TEST the temperature and humidity readings with independent thermometers and hygrometers! I had the same problem with the incubator I purchased to start hatching my own eggs, knew they were fertile, et al, and my development rate/hatch rate was dismal. Turns out that even though the readings from the built-in equipment said they were spot on, they were actually about 2.5 degrees off... too low, and that was what affected my success. I tested it independently, adjusted it accordingly, and voila! Close to 100% success rate! So, please do not 'assume' that the manufacturer is correct. They will ALWAYS tell you there's nothing wrong with their equipment because they don't want any negative connotations and have you return their products.

Thank you for your reply. Yeah, that makes sense, unfortunately... But I think the real problem here is that the rooster is not mating with them. I believe there would be at least some development or some hatch rate if he would and if the eggs would be fertile. I think trying another rooster that will mate with them is my last and only chance to see if I can get the chicks.

I will check the accuracy of the built-in thermometer before (and if) I will start incubating a new batch. I just have to buy a new medical thermometer at the pharmacy, preferably a digital one. My neighbor gave me a mercury-free one and it measured the temperature on the old incubator as accurate (so no calibration was needed), but I just couldn't get it to work after that. I tried to shake it down and "reset it" but it just got stuck for some reason, so I gave up. And since my previous experience with calibration turned out to be unnecessary, I skipped this step. But anyway, to really make sure that everything is on point, I will buy a medical digital one (I am sure these are properly calibrated right?) and see if the incubator is accurate. That's a good point, thank you.

 

[lisacraig]

I think its the plastic wrap.

 

[dl2625959]

This is just a thought, but should you be wrapping in plastic wrap? Is it possible that the fertilized zygote is suffocating? I don't think the eggs should be wrapped-- especially in something that blocks oxygen like plastic wrap.

I'm with you.

 

[hehahn]

Hi there! I second the thought about buying a secondary thermometer. I got a good thermometer/hygrometer (for humidity) off of Amazon for around $10. I was appalled to see that my new incubator was a few degrees off --which is no big deal if you're around 99*F, but if you were on the high side, like 101*F +2* = 103*= sterilized eggs with no development.

I would also lose the plastic wrap. Eggs are porous--they need to breathe. You may be doing more harm than good. I'm friends with a man who wins at poultry shows for his birds and has been doing this for 30+ years. He saves up 3 weeks worth of eggs at a time to fill his super large incubator, and he leaves them to sit on the table all that time. You can add a book under one end of the carton one day and the other end the next day and so on to "rotate" them gently in the shell, but otherwise they are fine in the fresh air. Chickens don't bury their eggs before they sit on them.

The second thing may be that you aren't skilled enough yet (no offense--it takes a while) to know what a developing egg looks like in the first week. I have routinely candled my eggs for 10+ years, and it took me a long time to learn what I was looking for. In fact, I often don't candle that early because it's easy to miss those tiny blood vessels. I wait until at least 10-14 days. And if I'm in doubt, I leave it alone and let it ride it out in the incubator. I put those in a corner to watch, and have been very surprised at the ones that hatched--ones I would have thrown away!

I've found that the more you mess with the eggs, moving them in and out, the worse results you get. So you might try to get some confirmed fertile eggs from another source, run your incubator with a secondary temp indicator to confirm, and let those eggs alone for 18 days until lockdown. Take out the turner at day 18, bump up the humidity, and leave alone.

Avoid the temptation to open the incubator every time a chick hatches--you'll condemn the others to being shrink wrapped since humidity fluctuations are a big problem in hatching. Think of the momma chicken: she sits there at the end and doesn't get off the nest once they start hatching.

Be patient, good luck, and Happy Hatching!

 

[kimandmark3]

None of the eggs pictured have the bulls eye. When you have a fertile egg the bulls eye is very defined and there will be no question. I think the problem is with the rooster, actually. He may be infertile. Taking into account the age of the hens, when you do get a fertile egg, they will develop but some might die after developing but others will live. Older hens can still have chicks.

 

[TheFarm41]

Hi there, I just candled my second batch of eggs on their 7th day - had 13 of them in the incubator - all turned out to be void of any development. Same happened with my previous batch of 12 eggs, candled at day 10.

To give you a bit of a background - I introduced a new 2 year old rooster to my small flock of 3 hens in March. My hens are ex-battery rescues, hybrids - most probably isabrown and lohman brown. Only two of them lay eggs, the third one has chronic health issues that made her stop laying.

The rooster quickly assimilated and just out of curiosity, I checked the egg yolks a week later. I posted photos of them here in another thread and they were confirmed by multiple people as fertile. So I began gathering eggs for the first incubation. How it turned out, you already know. I was hoping it was my old incubator that I used for the first time and had several hiccups with humidity and other various issues in the first 4 days of incubation, before buying a more expensive one. This second batch was started in this brand new incubator and the result is the same.

And I am left clueless as to what can be the issue? I collected the eggs always extremely fresh, an hour sometimes even sooner after they were laid and they were always absolutely clean. I did my best with the egg storage - I had the eggs wrapped in plastic wrap, turned upside down, stored at temperature around 19-20 degrees Celsius and was turning them 3-4 times a day. The oldest eggs were 8 days old.

The incubator had optimal temperature and humidity, turning was set every 20 minutes.

To me, everything seemed on spot, so why is this happening? Why are the eggs not developing? I took photos of egg yolks from eggs that were laid yesterday, I am attaching them below - are they not fertile? The ones from the first batch were identified by experienced users as 100% fertile, so I really don't understand what is happening here...

Throwing another batch of beautiful eggs away is breaking my heart - they took so much effort with them and to see all of it go to waste.. And incubator running 7 days straight unnecessarily..

I would suggest getting eggs from another source that you know to be fertile and incubating them at the same time as your eggs and see if you get different results. I usually do not incubate, I have broody hens for that, they are much better at hatching eggs than I am. Also I was not aware that you could tell a fertile egg by cracking it open before it is heated up.

Recently we had a nest of about 30 turkey eggs. I selected 12 eggs at random from the nest and sold to someone who wanted to incubate them. I left the rest in the nest and about 1 week later the mama turkey started to sett on them. The person who bought the eggs from me told me that they candled them after a week in the incubator and all 12 of them were infertile, so he discontinued incubating them.

This made me curious, so after about 10 days of my hen setting on her clutch I pulled 5 eggs and candled them. 4 of the 5 were definitely developing.

This would lead me to believe that the majority of the turkey eggs were fertile and something didn't go quite right with his incubating. . . or they were developing and he just didn't know what to look for.

The turkey eggs are due to hatch on May 9. It will be interesting to see how many hatch.

 

[abenardini]

If I will be incubating another batch of eggs, which I hope I will, I won't be wrapping the eggs. Thank you for pointing that out. It will save me a lot of time and work too, so I am more than happy to skip that step.

Best of luck!!

 

[TNchickenlady]

I don't have a rooster and most of the eggs I get from my hens have that bullseye on the yolk!
According to what I've read, that bullseye is not necessarily an indication of fertilization.

 

[Bill752]

I had 60 eggs given to me because they were old & had been refrigerated but i didn't need the eggs so I placed them in one of my incubators & had 17 hatch. I have never heard of wrapping eggs in plastic & I think it's because eggs have to breathe. Having just one rooster is like having all of your eggs in one basket & not a good idea. Only if the temperature is too high for even a short period of time will kill the inside of an egg; normally I have a 90-100% hatch rate but back to the 60 eggs, I didn't really expect more than 1-2 hatching so I consider 17 a success. I strongly recommend a new rooster or eggs from another source & better luck in the future, but wait until the 14th day to candle.