Failure to thrive, newly laid eggs ?

[Faraz1]

So i had a few eggs in the incubator which were laid by my leghorn. So far 2 have failed to externally pip and after assisting did not make it. The hen in question recently started laying a couple of weeks ago so i am not sure if it is a new egg problem or a chick/incubator problem ?

The same incubator has previously successfully hatched multiple chicks before.

Only difference is this time the leghorn eggs are smaller than ususal, probably due to the hen just getting started with laying and should gradually increase in the coming weeks.

 

[NanaK]

I prefer to wait until a hen is about 1 year old before hatching her eggs. Eggs are larger and so are the chicks that hatch from them.

Good luck with your hatches.

 

[sourland]

Pullet eggs frequently result in stunted/weakened chicks.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I recently wrote this in another thread so I'll just copy it here to save typing.

When a pullet starts to lay the eggs can be pretty small and the egg needs to be pretty much perfectly put together to hatch. Putting an egg together is a pretty complex process. It's not that unusual for the first eggs to be thin-shelled or no-shelled, extra thick shelled, double yolked, no yolk, or just weird in other ways, some you might not notice by looking. It sometimes takes a while for the pullet to work the kinks out of her internal egg making factory. Most pullets get this straight within a few days but sometimes it takes a little longer. To me it is surprising how many pullets get the first egg perfect.

The smaller eggs when the pullet starts to lay is nature's way of protecting her body from laying really big eggs before her body has matured enough to handle the larger eggs. But the eggs get larger the longer she lays. The tiny eggs could possibly hatch if the pullet did put it together correctly but the chicks will be small. There isn't enough room or nutrients for the chick to get very large.

I've hatched pullet eggs. Some of them do hatch. But my hatch rate with the small pullet eggs is not as good as the rate with larger eggs. Sometimes it isn't bad but sometimes it is really bad. Most of the chicks that hatch do well from any egg, but if a chick dies, it is more likely to be a chick from a small pullet egg. Chick mortality can be higher from the small pullet eggs.

These are the reasons they say do not hatch pullet eggs. But I've noticed if I wait until the pullet has laid about a month before I set her eggs these problems pretty much go away. If a pullet starts laying really young, say16 weeks, you might want to wait another few weeks.

The hen in question recently started laying a couple of weeks ago so i am not sure if it is a new egg problem or a chick/incubator problem ?

I also don't know. Even if I were there looking at it I likely could not be sure if it were an incubator problem, a pullet egg problem, something to do with the individual chicks, or an operator error. But since you have hatched before with this incubator I'd suspect a pullet egg problem as most likely.

 

[NanaK]

Wonderful explanation!

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Often new layers or new to laying after a winter break should not be incubated for 30 days at least
I go by egg weight so I know when I can incubate
My guess is they didn’t have enough room to turn to hatch on their own
Sorry you lost the little ones

 

[Faraz1]

Thanks a lot for the insight. Learned a lot !

 

[Faraz1]

Update: egg 3 out of 4 has pipped externally and is chirping in the incubator. Egg size is slightly larger compared to the previous 2 that didnt make it. Fingers crossed for this one!

 

[NanaK]

Good luck!

 

[Faraz1]

Update: chick 3 and 4 manage to hatch successfully although their eggs were slightly larger as compared to the other 2. All 4 were collected from a pair of leghorns that were hatched together