First Timer - Don’t know if my chicks are alive!

[Kvbutler716]

Hi all, I’m incubating for the first time and I’ve read a lot of the threads here but just need some experienced help on whether this egg is still viable. I think I’ve had lots of humidity and temp issues during the whole process because I just plugged in and went with assumption it was accurate. This is the only survivor that I know was alive and seemed fully developed prior to lock down. I’m not at day 25 and I don’t see internal pip or moment. I think I lost it but I also am not an expert on what I’m looking at. That’s where I’d like your help!

 

[SnackMeat]

No veins sorry. Dead.

You can also pop a hole in the air sac end of egg. If no chirping, or movement then further confirmation.

I tend to like to wait 12+ hours before deciding an egg is dead because I have had some eggs I was sure were dead wind up being fine. But you have zero veins. No veins, no movement, no heartbeat


You may not be up for it but you can take the chick out of the shell for a post mortem to figure out if it was positioned correctly-- was it's head/beak facing the air sac, or was it tucked in towards the body?

Was there any physical abnormalities obvious?

Did it look like it died earlier than you thought?

 

[SnackMeat]

I would also say the air sac looks a little high so probably too high humidity. And it could have also been too hot.

Incubators often have issues so it's always good to have a couple backup ways to measure temperature and to routinely check. A hygrometer for humidity is handy, but not as necessary. Aiming for 55% throughout is good as a minimum. Some people do well with dry hatching but I had a bad experience with it.

Another thing you can do is weigh your eggs before it goes in to start incubating. You can write the starting weight in grams on the eggs. You'd have to double check, but for ducks, I was reading you want to be losing something like 2.8% weight per week. I think chickens is higher because of shorter incubation. But you can measure every 5-7 days and then reevaluate humidity from there. Or simply follow an air sac calendar and change humidity based on the size of the air sac.

 

[nuthatched]

Looks dead, sorry

 

[Kvbutler716]

Thank you all for your replies. I feared it was gone but wanted some clear confirmation. I did go ahead and do post mortem. After popping a small hole in air sac and confirmed no movement or chirping. Chick was in right position, fully formed, but had not absorbed yolk sac fully and had a greenish discharge when interior membrane was punctured. So not sure what happened but guessing my heat or humidity was the culprit.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Heat issues, turning issues, and pre or early incubation stress are the big causes for hatch failure. Definitely use external thermometers (plural) and watch them, adjust incubator accordingly. Make sure your turner is working appropriately for your egg type and periodically check it is working, not as important as temp but a ton of early embryonic deaths might be a sign you have turner issues. Shipped eggs are risky but can hatch fine too. Local or home eggs should be incubated within a week, stored above fridge temp at cold room temp or below, and eggs should be collected multiple times daily during hot or sub freezing weather. But the main issue is a constant accurate incubator temp. Humidity is a secondary issue, except during lockdown it can bounce around and you can still have a good hatch, work on stabilizing temp first then worry about humidity.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

I'll include a couple in Troubleshooting charts that may help you understand what happened when you open eggs that did not hatch. I open all of them, not just the late quitters. These are written more for the commercial operations, not us backyarders, that's why you can see some strange comments in there, like fumigation. Still, there can be many reasons for the embryo quitting at any stage. Some are due to things that happened before the eggs went into the incubator, some are due to the incubation.

Trouble Shooting Failures with Egg Incubation | Mississippi State University Extension Service (msstate.edu)

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

Your first incubation with a certain incubator can come with a learning curve. A lot of the time the presets just are not that accurate so I recommend you use a calibrated thermometer to confirm you are working with the correct temperatures. I personally do not worry that much about precise humidity as the best humidity to use can vary based on individual circumstances, even if they are the same model incubator. But I do want a hydrometer to see jumps or drops in humidity.

My main suggestion is to try to assure you are working with the correct temperature and be consistent with the humidity as measured with your hygrometer. Evaluate the results and adjust as necessary.

If you have an incubator with a fan (called a forced air) the correct temperature should be 99.5 F (37.5 C) measured anywhere in the incubator. If it does not have a fan (called a still air) warm air rises. The elevation you take the temperature matters. The recommended temperature is usually 101.5 F (38.C) taken at the top of chicken eggs. I like my forced air but a lot of eggs have been hatched in a still air incubator.

I don't know why your first attempt was so horrible but it will get better. Good luck and once again,