Chicks who die in shell will become "sticky" as they begin to decompose as well. This can happen as little as 24 hours after death. If these chicks were past the due date at all the stickiness could simply be from decomposition starting. It will cause discoloration of the membrane & a slimy, sticky film to coat the chicks. Some things other than humidity that can cause chicks to die in shell are poor nutrition of the parents, overly hard shells that they are unable to pip through, weak chick to begin with due to malformation internally or externally. Sometimes these things just happen and there is nothing that can be done to prevent it. The hatching process itself is a huge stress on the chick & weak chicks will not make it out of the shell. If you are only having 2-3 out of 20-30 eggs each hatch do this then you really are having a great hatch rate & should not really be overly worried about it. Anything above 50% hatch on shipped eggs is a fabulous rate, and anything above 75-80% for your own eggs is actually really good. Even broodies who hatch out do not have 100% hatch rates very often. 100% hatches are very rare even with completely ideal conditions throughout the entire collection, storage, & incubation process. Throw shipping into the mix & those odds of hatch instantly decrease by 50%.
1 thing I have found: If you open the hatcher to remove chicks during active hatch it will effect to remainder of the chicks even if they are not yet pipped. Too many fluctuations in humidity or drops & rises in temps during hatch WILL effect the hatch rate.
1 thing I have found: If you open the hatcher to remove chicks during active hatch it will effect to remainder of the chicks even if they are not yet pipped. Too many fluctuations in humidity or drops & rises in temps during hatch WILL effect the hatch rate.
