- Dec 12, 2011
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here's a great link with an excerpt below
http://www.natureform.com/kb/index.php?article=1011
Troubleshooting: Specific Problems
http://www.natureform.com/kb/index.php?article=1011
Troubleshooting: Specific Problems
- Sign: Not pipped. Full-term embryo, large yolk sac; yolk sac may not be fully enclosed by abdominal wall, may have residual albumen. Causes:
- Inadequate turning, resulting in decreased embryonic membrane development and nutrient absorption.
- Humidity too high during incubation or after transfer.
- Incubator temperature too low.
- Hatcher temperature too high.
- Eggs chilled (e.g., at transfer).
- Nutritional deficiencies.
- Heredity.
- Embryological development accident.
- Breeder diseases.
- Inadequate ventilation.
- Prolonged egg storage.
- Sign: Pipped. Full-term embryo, dead in shell. Causes:
- Low humidity or temperature for a prolonged period.
- Low humidity during hatching.
- High temperature during hatching.
- Nutritional deficiencies.
- Breeder diseases.
- Poor ventilation.
- Inadequate turning during first 12 days.
- Injury during transfer.
- Prolonged egg storage.
- Sign: Shell partially pipped, embryo alive or dead. Causes:
- See 8.a-i.
- Excessive fumigation during hatching.
- Eggs set small end up.
- Sign: Chicks hatch early; tendency to be thin and noisy. Causes:
- Small eggs.
- Differences among breeds.
- Incubator temperature too high.
- Incubator humidity too low.
- Sign: Chicks hatch late. Causes:
- Large eggs.
- Old breeders.
- Eggs stored too long (40 min. increase in incubation time/day of storage, .5% to 1.2% decrease in number hatched/day of storage).
- Incubator temperature too low.
- Weak embryos.
- Inbreeding.
- Incubator humidity too high.
- Sign: Slow, protracted (drawn-out) hatch. Causes:
- Mix in the incubator of eggs stored for long and short periods (1.2% loss of hatch/day of storage when all eggs set at the same time; only .5% loss/day when eggs stored for long periods are set earlier to allow a longer incubation period).
- Mix of eggs from young and old breeders.
- Mix of large and small eggs.
- Improper egg handling.
- Hot or cold spots in incubator or hatcher.
- Incubator or hatcher temperature too high or too low.
- Room ventilation system improper; high positive pressure or low negative pressure. Such pressures may alter incubator or hatcher ventilation.
- Sign: Trays not uniform in hatch or chick quality. Causes:
- Mix of large and small eggs.
- Mix of eggs from young and old breeders.
- Mix of eggs from different strains or breeds.
- Some eggs stored much longer.
- Lack of uniform ventilation in setter or hatcher.
- Disease or other stress in one or more breeder flocks.
- Variation in egg storage procedures among flocks.
- Sign: Sticky chicks; chicks smeared with albumen. Causes:
- Low incubation temperature.
- High incubation humidity.
- Improper turning. This results in reduced embryonic membrane growth and reduced nutrient absorption.
- Old eggs.
- Very large eggs.
- Sign: Chicks stuck in shell, dry; chicks with shell fragments stuck to down feathers. Causes:
- Humidity too low during egg storage, incubation, and/or hatching.
- Improper egg turning.
- Cracked eggs or poor shell quality.
- Sign: Premature hatching; bloody navels. Causes:
- Incubator and/or hatcher temperature too high.
- Incubator and/or hatcher temperature too high.
- Sign: Small chicks. Causes:
- Small eggs.
- Low humidity during egg storage and/or incubation.
- High incubation temperature.
- High altitude. Hatcheries at high altitudes (>1,500 m or 4,920 ft) may need to adjust for low humidity, carbon dioxide, and oxygen. Atmospheric pressure <600 mmHg (~1,830 m or 6,004 ft) reduces growth and metabolic rate, increases loss of water from the egg.
- Thin, porous shells.
- Sign: Unhealed navel; dry, rough down feathers. Causes:
- High incubator temperature or wide fluctuations in temperature.
- Low temperature in hatcher.
- Humidity too high in hatcher or not lowered when hatching complete.
- Inadequate breeder nutrition.
- Sign: Unhealed navel, wet, odorous; mushy, large, soft-bodied, and lethargic chick. Causes:
- Omphalitis (navel infection). Contamination from dirty trays, unsanitary machines or hatchery, dirty eggs, inadequate egg sanitation or fumigation.
- Low incubator temperature.
- High incubator or hatcher humidity.
- Inadequate ventilation.
- Sign: Weak chicks. Causes:
- High hatcher temperature.
- Poor hatcher ventilation.
- Excessive fumigation.
- Contamination.
- Sign: Chicks malpositioned. Normal position after 19 days of incubation: embryo's long axis same as long axis of egg; head in large end of egg; head to the right and under right wing; beak toward air cell; feet toward head. Causes:
- Eggs set small end up or in horizontal position.
- Inadequate or improper turning.
- High or low incubator temperature.
- High humidity.
- Old breeders.
- Round-shaped eggs or very large eggs.
- Nutritional deficiencies, especially vitamin A and vitamin B12.
- Eggs handled or stored improperly.
- Retarded development.
- Embryos <18 days old may be in a position different from that for hatching but one normal for their age (for example, the head-between-thighs position). The feet-over-head position is hard to distinguish and may be normal. The beak-over-wing position is probably a normal variant. Some malpositions are lethal; others are not.
- Sign: Malformations. Causes:
- Improper egg storage.
- Jarring of eggs or transporting large end down.
- Heredity.
- Nutritional deficiencies, e.g., biotin, riboflavin, zinc, or manganese.
- Inadequate turning.
- Improper egg orientation, e.g., small end up.
- High or low incubator temperature.
- Breeder diseases.
- Inadequate ventilation or shells with low porosity or permeability.
- Sign: Crooked toes, spraddled legs. Causes:
- High or low incubator temperature.
- Inadequate nutrition.
- Smooth bottom hatching trays.
- Sign: Short down, wiry down. Causes:
- Nutritional deficiencies, especially riboflavin.
- Mycotoxins and other toxic or inhibitory substances, resulting in nutritional deficiencies.
- High incubation temperature during days 1 to 14.
- Sign: Eyes closed, down stuck to eyes. Causes:
- Temperature too high in hatcher.
- Humidity too low in hatcher.
- Down collectors inadequate.
- Chicks remain in hatcher too long after hatching
- Excessive air movement in hatcher.
- Sign: Exploders. Causes:
- Dirty eggs from nest. Dirty nests.
- Floor eggs.
- Eggs improperly washed; eggs wiped or cleaned with contaminated cloth or buffer.
- Dust from breeder house, cooler, transport, etc.
- Water condensation on eggs (sweating).
- Water sprayed, fogged, or splashed on eggs; eggs dipped in contaminated solutions.
- Contamination from earlier exploders, leakers, or broken eggs.
- Contamination from handling eggs with dirty hands or equipment.
- Contaminated setter flats, air filters, water (humidity) system.
- Sign: Dwarf embryos: runts in growing chicks. Causes:
- Egg contamination.
- Hatchery contamination, especially during hatching.
- Breeder diseases.
- Heredity.
- Nutritional deficiencies.
- Thyroid abnormalities.
- Sign: Crossed beak, twisted beak. Causes:
- Heredity.
- Heredity.
- Sign: Missing eye(s), other eye abnormalities. Causes:
- High incubator temperature during days 1 to 6.
- Low oxygen during days 1 to 6.30.
- Sign: Exposed brain. Causes:
- High incubator temperature during days 1 to 3.
- Low oxygen during days 1 to 3.
- Sign: Red hocks in hatched chicks or unhatched pips. Causes:
- Prolonged pushing on shell during pipping and hatching.
- Vitamin deficiencies.
- Thick shells, as in pullet flocks.
- High incubator humidity and/or low incubator temperature.
- Sign: Small air cell, broad pip area, membrane incompletely cut, red hocks, edematous chick, unabsorbed albumen, yolk incompletely retracted, egg weight loss <10%. Causes:
- High incubator humidity.
- Very thick shells, as in pullet flocks.
- Low incubator temperature.
- Sign: Micromelia (shortened long bones, parrot beak, bent bones); chondrodystrophy (similar to micromelia). Causes:
- Heredity, lethal genes.
- Nutritional deficiencies (biotin or manganese).
- Sign: Short beak, missing beak, face abnormalities. Causes:
- Incubator temperature too high during days 1 to 5.
- Heredity, lethal genes.
- Developmental accidents.
- Nutritional deficiencies (niacin).
- Sign: Ectopic (exposed) viscera. Causes:
- Incubator temperature too high.
- Heredity, lethal genes.
- Sign: Hemorrhage. Causes:
- Red skin -- incubator or hatcher temperature too high.
- Bleeding in chorioallantois -- rough handling at transfer.
- Nutritional deficiencies (vitamin K or vitamin E).
- Embryos that died at days 11 to 15 and appear small and dark red -- usually caused by molds or other contamination.
- Sign: Swollen head and back of neck (exudative diathesis - increased capillary permeability). Causes:
- Nutritional deficiencies -- vitamin E or selenium.