First try at hatching out own chickens..

[itsmedanah]

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting here so bare with me We did our first try at hatching chicken eggs this month. We put 13 in the incubator and this past Tuesday, on exactly day 21, they hatched. The problem is, only 6 hatched. We gave the last 7 a few more days thinking maybe they were late bloomers but nothing. We opened them before we threw them out and each one had a fully developed chick inside. I'm very disappointed in what we could have done wrong. Was there not enough humidity? Should we have turned them three times instead of twice a day? My husband keeps saying "Maybe they're sex linked and that caused a problem." I have no idea what the sex linked thing is about, and I never hear anyone on here mentioning sex linked at all when they talk about hatching eggs. Does anyone have any ideas as to why so many didmt hatch? I didn't have anything to measure the humidity, but the temperature was always tigjt where it was supposed to be. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, Dana

 

[brantld]

Hi dana
Ya know I just had this exact problem. Out of 13 only 3 hatched. I'm so bummed because I can't figure out why the rest didn't hatch out. They had chicks in them to. I gotta figure out what happened I'm lost.
Danna

 

[ozexpat]

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting here so bare with me We did our first try at hatching chicken eggs this month. We put 13 in the incubator and this past Tuesday, on exactly day 21, they hatched. The problem is, only 6 hatched. We gave the last 7 a few more days thinking maybe they were late bloomers but nothing. We opened them before we threw them out and each one had a fully developed chick inside. I'm very disappointed in what we could have done wrong. Was there not enough humidity? Should we have turned them three times instead of twice a day? My husband keeps saying "Maybe they're sex linked and that caused a problem." I have no idea what the sex linked thing is about, and I never hear anyone on here mentioning sex linked at all when they talk about hatching eggs. Does anyone have any ideas as to why so many didmt hatch? I didn't have anything to measure the humidity, but the temperature was always tigjt where it was supposed to be. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you, Dana

hi dana

first of all 6 from 13 on a first hatch is pretty good. If they had full grown chicks in them it was probably humidity. Did you add water to the bator during the hatch? what about for lock down?

 

[ozexpat]

Hi dana
Ya know I just had this exact problem. Out of 13 only 3 hatched. I'm so bummed because I can't figure out why the rest didn't hatch out. They had chicks in them to. I gotta figure out what happened I'm lost.
Danna

same questions to you.

to get advice, please detail your hatch process as much as possible.

were they shipped eggs? humidity? forced air or still air bator? temps? turning.

 

[coolmind1999]

These are some of the factor that may have killed ur fully formed chicks
-maybe they were week and shell was to strong
-it wasn't humid enough the membrane dried out

 

[itsmedanah]

Thank you guys for responding so quickly!
The temp in the incubator was the 99 it was supposed to be according to the directions. I'm kind of wondering about the humidity. When we first put them in there we didn't add any water. It wasn't till one point where I read the directions (hubby read it first, and set everything up) and added water myself, but it had been a few days. There isn't a Gage in there to measure humidity, so I never knew exactly. Reading on here I realize how important that is now, but when we first started I didn't know.
We just wanted to give hatching a try. We got the eggs from our year old chickens out in the coop. Could this 'sex link' thing be an issue of some kind some where along the line? Our initial chicks came from Meyer's Hatchery here in Ohio. It's a reputable place and we've had no problems with our year old chickens (well, other than the stupid hawks and raccoons that attacked them often until we made a set up to where they're more protected, plus Rocky (our rooster) does a good job of protecting them
We're enjoying these gals so much! They're more pets than anything else. But each hen is laying her egg every day so we get 11 eggs a day, which we sell to family and friends and use that money to by supplies.
Anyway, from the info I gave, do you guys think it's the lack of water put in the bator right off the bat that could have been the reason they died? Oh, on day 19 we got all excited because the very first one pipped. We watched and watched until we went to bed. When I got up in the morning, the water (where the egg was sitting above-the reservoir was just below the egg) was all yellow..and from the hole she pipped, there was yellow leakage that had dried up. She must have died at some point because she never went past that first pip and we threw it out (after cracking it open to make sure). What was that yellow stuff? And what happened?
I soooo love this site! I've learned SOOO much! (guess I should have found you here BEFORE we began a hatch attempt :-( )

 

[wabbit1964]

Sorry about all the chicks that didn't make it I'm a newbie currently working on my first time incubating/hatching eggs.

 

[ozexpat]

Thank you guys for responding so quickly!
The temp in the incubator was the 99 it was supposed to be according to the directions. I'm kind of wondering about the humidity. When we first put them in there we didn't add any water. It wasn't till one point where I read the directions (hubby read it first, and set everything up) and added water myself, but it had been a few days. There isn't a Gage in there to measure humidity, so I never knew exactly. Reading on here I realize how important that is now, but when we first started I didn't know.
We just wanted to give hatching a try. We got the eggs from our year old chickens out in the coop. Could this 'sex link' thing be an issue of some kind some where along the line? Our initial chicks came from Meyer's Hatchery here in Ohio. It's a reputable place and we've had no problems with our year old chickens (well, other than the stupid hawks and raccoons that attacked them often until we made a set up to where they're more protected, plus Rocky (our rooster) does a good job of protecting them
We're enjoying these gals so much! They're more pets than anything else. But each hen is laying her egg every day so we get 11 eggs a day, which we sell to family and friends and use that money to by supplies.
Anyway, from the info I gave, do you guys think it's the lack of water put in the bator right off the bat that could have been the reason they died? Oh, on day 19 we got all excited because the very first one pipped. We watched and watched until we went to bed. When I got up in the morning, the water (where the egg was sitting above-the reservoir was just below the egg) was all yellow..and from the hole she pipped, there was yellow leakage that had dried up. She must have died at some point because she never went past that first pip and we threw it out (after cracking it open to make sure). What was that yellow stuff? And what happened?
I soooo love this site! I've learned SOOO much! (guess I should have found you here BEFORE we began a hatch attempt :-( )

read hatching101 in my signature below.

the chicks probably died because of humidity issues.

its a tough lesson but you are on the right track