- Jun 17, 2012
- 26
- 1
- 22
The past 5 hatches from my own fertile eggs have all resulted in around a 33 percent or worse hatch rate. In one case (incubator)I had 75 percent hatch, then quite a few died on me with no warning on the first night. The next round of eggs from the incubator a week later, only 15 of 42 eggs hatched, and 2 of those died. I would usually attribute this to incubation problems, but even the 8 eggs under my bantam hen that came off friday only yielded 2 chicks, two died in the shell after pipping, and the others showed no signs of hatching but I havent cracked them open to see the contents yet. In the case of the first two incubator hatches almost every egg was fertile, the chicks just did not make it.
First off, I am not an expert by any stretch, I try and learn something new every day from people with more experience than I have. However, by the same token I am not completely new to hatching and raising chicks. Before this rash of bad hatches I had been seeing 75 percent or better out of the eggs I was incubating, they were not however from my own flock, as my Australorps have only been producing a few months now.
As far as I can tell, I havent had any problems with sickness in my flock, they all get a good diet of layer feed and a little free range time in the afternoons. The poop all seems consistent and fairly formed, and they're all healthy and energetic.
The only problem I have had, is a battle with mud over the past couple months. Only in the past couple weeks have I found a good source of free wood chips to help me combat the amounts of rain we have been getting lately. The eggs I incubated were from good sunny days and harvested immediately then incubated within a few days max.
Is there anything I might be missing that could be causing some of my issues? Could the overly muddy conditions have caused a problem with my eggs even though I tried to only hatch the dry and clean ones? I am open to any advice, right now I'm up for trying anything as I've invested so much time in establishing my beautiful Black Australorp flock only to find myself struggling to hatch from them.
First off, I am not an expert by any stretch, I try and learn something new every day from people with more experience than I have. However, by the same token I am not completely new to hatching and raising chicks. Before this rash of bad hatches I had been seeing 75 percent or better out of the eggs I was incubating, they were not however from my own flock, as my Australorps have only been producing a few months now.
As far as I can tell, I havent had any problems with sickness in my flock, they all get a good diet of layer feed and a little free range time in the afternoons. The poop all seems consistent and fairly formed, and they're all healthy and energetic.
The only problem I have had, is a battle with mud over the past couple months. Only in the past couple weeks have I found a good source of free wood chips to help me combat the amounts of rain we have been getting lately. The eggs I incubated were from good sunny days and harvested immediately then incubated within a few days max.
Is there anything I might be missing that could be causing some of my issues? Could the overly muddy conditions have caused a problem with my eggs even though I tried to only hatch the dry and clean ones? I am open to any advice, right now I'm up for trying anything as I've invested so much time in establishing my beautiful Black Australorp flock only to find myself struggling to hatch from them.
