Embryo size vrs egg size

[Rickshaw]

Might sounds like a wierd question...but could the ration between the size of the developing embryo/ready to hatch chick and the egg itself cause problems?

I tried a search but was unable to find anything. The main thing we habe is one of our rainbow eggers lays really big eggs...could a chick be ready but to small to hatch?

This one developed but never hatched. That is my wife's hand...the egg was like 4 in long.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi there, hope you are enjoying BYC!

Okay, so according to my understanding and what I am seeing here.. 4 inches is a fairly long egg and I would THINK having humidity too high, which would allow the embryo to grow too big to turn into place for hatching and essentially be malpositioned at pip.

I have never had an embryo/chick be too small to hatch as it should grow to the size of the shell. An embryo that was too small to hatch, might actually internally pip and drown from humidity being to high.

And aside from that... hatch can fail for SOOOO many reasons. Did you have any other develop and hatch with the incubation of that eggs and if so on what day? Also, what is the age and breed of bird? What incubator are you using and where do ya run it at regarding temp/humidity?

One of the best hatching resources I like to use, hatch fail analysis according to what day the embryo quit starts around page 52...
Incubation guide

And another analysis resource to review...
https://ufdc.ufl.edu/IR00004437/00001

I see you are in Utah... how high is your elevation?

I see now you call it a rainbow layer. If you haven't incubated it yet and wanna try... go for it, you never know till ya try and while it may not be an ideal shaped egg for incubation, if you like that hen.. I have hatched plenty of imperfect eggs with absolutely perfect chicks! And the opposite... some perfect eggs that either didn't hatch or even possibly hatched a deformity. So many unknowns, it's always an adventure!

Good luck and happy hatching!

 

[Rickshaw]

>Did you have any other develop and hatch with the incubation of that eggs and if so on what day?
The 1 other egg that went into the incubator with that egg did hatch on about day 22.

>Also, what is the age and breed of bird?

All birds are young. Only laying for about a month.

>What incubator are you using and where do ya run it at regarding temp/humidity?

We are using a no-name generic "56 egg incubator" we got from eBay (likely made in China). Chose that one as it was good size and fit our budget (we plan to upgrade/build eventually) temp is set to 37.5°C and humidity is averages 50% to 60% (currently using single device for incubating and hatching, planning to get a second bator for hatching)

>I see you are in Utah... how high is your elevation?

About 5000 ft

We have not had any issues with too big chicks (that we know of). We are worried about this hen (kids named her Midnight Turtle) as we have had a 0% hatch rate with her eggs, and all of them are large.

 

[chickens really]

No because they grow to accommodate the egg size..

 

[EggSighted4Life]

All birds are young. Only laying for about a month.

This could be part of the issue as reproductive system may still be working out it's kinks (hence double yolkers) plus since they are still growing they may be using up the nutrients more than sending to the egg. I feed my breeders 20% protein flock raiser OR 30% protein turkey starter with oyster shell on the side. I never use "layer", and 22% protein was shown to give the best hatch rate.

My Chinese bator gives my worst hatches... so 50% isn't too bad for your first time around. It's never ideal to to set only 2 eggs since raising one chick is a lonely chick and they learn from each other type stuff. Though I have sat more and had only 1 hatch, so it happens sometimes even when we do our best to avoid things.

Since the eggs came from your own flock it may not be as much of an issue with altitude as if you had eggs brought from a lower elevation. Here is one link describing the challenges at altitude..
https://thepoultrysite.com/articles/incubating-eggs-at-high-altitudes