@Indyshent just a thought about your less than great hatch...that's the kind of thing that was happening to me in my early hatches last year. I d id some research and found that even if the eggs are technically viable, if they are collected during really cold weather, they are much more likely to have lower hatchability and greater deformities/deaths. That's why I have yet to put an egg in the incubator this year (though if I'd had my act together, I could have during the past few warm days). So unless your hens are in a warmer place (like a very protected garage) or you collect eggs very frequently (preferably while they are still hot off the presses and feel warm), I don't think it's worth incubating them to just wind up disappointed and bummed. I personally felt like I made chicks suffer (even though I didn't do it on purpose, obviously). Everybody wants chicks asap, and you can do that in mild weather, but not during bitter spells. I hope to be ready to start setting eggs in my bators after this next cold snap, if temps will stay above freezing most of the day and/or if I feel like running outside to the coop every hour or so so the eggs don't chill too much.
My later season hatches with the same birds went MUCH better and I did not change anything else, so I do think chilling of the eggs has adverse effects even if they survive to hatch. They want to be warm.
ALSO, I would encourage those of you who raise a lot of chicks to put your breeding hens on vitamin-enriched water. It's cheap insurance against a lot of hatch defects. I need to start that asap now that I just reminded myself again. About 2 weeks head start is recommended, though with water-soluble vitamins, I would think a week would be sufficient. You can't really OD the birds on B vitamins (of which there are MANY that can cause defects if low) or vitamin C, though that's not a big issue for birds. Excesses of those just pass into the urine. You CAN overdo fat-soluble vitamins like D and K, so if your vitamin supplement for the waterers includes both, follow the directions very accurately. Vitamin E is about the only fat-soluble vitamin that is hard to overdose.
@jchny2000 sorry to hear about DD's grandmother, glad to hear about your brother!
@pipdzipdnreadytogo Egg(s) is/are fertile. Great photos. Bullseyes are fertile. Smaller solid whitish yellow spots are infertile. If anyone ever wants to check an infertile one, just grab an egg from a hen without access to a roo or buy a dozen at the store.