Elle Beasley
Hatching
- Oct 20, 2025
- 1
- 1
- 4
Hi,
Just wondering on the impact of oddly shaped eggs and the hatch rate.
I've hatched chickens before but only from hens we kept and it's been a while. Bought eggs which had to be posted, quite an ordeal to actual get them, several weeks after ordering which would be fine. But on arrival the majority were oddly shaped, a couple very long and thin, some very round, some too big/small. 12 Braham and 10 Serema. None of the eggs seemed uniform and a couple had cracked.
Couldn't face trying to go back and forth again with the seller so tried putting them in.
More than I expected weren't fertile for a 'normal' batch of eggs. Some looked like they were developing veins but got no further, some got blood rings etc, it was a bad start. The incubator was steady on temp, slightly up and down on humidity but not so bad. Previously it has incubated a batch of quails fine.
Its hatch day and only 3 hatched. One of which hasn't made it, hatched very quickly and it looks like intestines were outside. Also one of the survivors looks like its going to be a silkie which is what i ordered.
I've left the rest in for now but is there any hope at all considering its the end of day 21 etc? Normally I'd have thought the Seremas would have been earlier than the larger chickens. There were some that had larger air sacs before lockdown. Unfortunately I had to open the incubator very briefly to attempt to save the one we lost but humidity didnt drop too badly. Is there any hope for the remaining eggs? The lastest one hatched this morning and no pips. The 3 that hatched were probably of the most 'normal' eggs. Would you consider pipping them or is there anything else I could do? I'm absolutely gutted as I've never had anything this bad happen before and I've yet to tell my 4 year old her firsts ever chick is dead.
Thank you
Just wondering on the impact of oddly shaped eggs and the hatch rate.
I've hatched chickens before but only from hens we kept and it's been a while. Bought eggs which had to be posted, quite an ordeal to actual get them, several weeks after ordering which would be fine. But on arrival the majority were oddly shaped, a couple very long and thin, some very round, some too big/small. 12 Braham and 10 Serema. None of the eggs seemed uniform and a couple had cracked.
Couldn't face trying to go back and forth again with the seller so tried putting them in.
More than I expected weren't fertile for a 'normal' batch of eggs. Some looked like they were developing veins but got no further, some got blood rings etc, it was a bad start. The incubator was steady on temp, slightly up and down on humidity but not so bad. Previously it has incubated a batch of quails fine.
Its hatch day and only 3 hatched. One of which hasn't made it, hatched very quickly and it looks like intestines were outside. Also one of the survivors looks like its going to be a silkie which is what i ordered.
I've left the rest in for now but is there any hope at all considering its the end of day 21 etc? Normally I'd have thought the Seremas would have been earlier than the larger chickens. There were some that had larger air sacs before lockdown. Unfortunately I had to open the incubator very briefly to attempt to save the one we lost but humidity didnt drop too badly. Is there any hope for the remaining eggs? The lastest one hatched this morning and no pips. The 3 that hatched were probably of the most 'normal' eggs. Would you consider pipping them or is there anything else I could do? I'm absolutely gutted as I've never had anything this bad happen before and I've yet to tell my 4 year old her firsts ever chick is dead.
Thank you