It's going, going, going, GONE...WHY!

[todtrac]

I recently incubated 19 eggs with not so good results, I had five hatch out... so five days after they were to hatch out, I cracked open the rest of the eggs. I found four that were not fertile, three that had small embroyo died early, but then I had seven fully developed peeps, why would they die at the last moment??... my thoughts are that they were doing fine until the first few chicks started rolling them around when they were newly hatched... does that sound like what happened?... Does anyone have any suggestions what I should do next time?.. I am thinking that next time I will cut down some egg cartons and put them in the incubator after I take the eggs off the auto turner, this way the eggs wouldn't have the chance to roll when bumped... Felt awful when I opened the eggs

Any ideas?

 

[f8thnjc]

Could be many things. Humidity? Temp? Weak chicks? Anything. Sorry for your losses. I have seen a lot of people use cartons, and I was thinking about using one next time too. Worth a shot.

On a side note, love your coop! We are in the process of building our new coop, and we are using yours as our model! Thanks!

 

[madrooster]

hate that for ya

 

[todtrac]

Thanks for the advice, I will try it again with egg cartons. Just couldn't understand why they made it so long and quit on me...

I am glad you like my coop, it was fun to build, and a great conversation piece.... wife doesn't agree though.

 

[f8thnjc]

Quote:
I am finding, through all the posts on BYC, that it happens to most, if not all, people. Sometimes you just don't know.

 

[bakerjw]

I just had a bad hatch. Right before lock down I checked and had at least 5 or 6 eggs with moving chicks. None of them hatched. I am not sure why but it is certainly disheartening.

 

[wegotchickens]

A lot of things can factor in to a bad hatch.

How experienced are you? Did you duss over them a lot? Candle frequesntly?

Were the eggs shipped? I have the MOST late-term fails from shipped eggs. It's like they just have no get up and go.

Could the temp have spiked? Sometimes when the chicks are hatching they cause the temp to rise due to all the wiggling. Also, the humidity can spike during that time, too.

Could the temp have dropped? Did you open the bator to take out the chicks that had already hatched? Some people do this with no problem. I can with my Brinsea, but with my Brower it causes a temp & humidity drop that can be fatal.

Sometimes it's a breed issue. Seramas and Japanese bantams have a high fail rate. Something in the genes.
Are you hens or roosters very old? That can cause genetic issues, too. Or maybe you have a bird with bad genes that causes a high fail-to-thrive ratio.

 

[todtrac]

Quote:
Well... not too experienced in the hatching process, I did it once before with better success. Not exactly sure what you mean by Duss over them? As for candling them, I did in the first week or so, but not lately.

Yes, I bought the eggs, they shipped to me, two different shipments. 2/13 (americanas) hatched and 3/6 (silkies) hatched

The temp really never spiked or dropped, I did however kept putting warm sponges in to raise humidity towards the last few days.

I want to try again so I am not giving up!

Thanks for your advice,



Yes, I bought

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can look through these and maybe get an idea. There are a lot of different things that can cause it, not all of them under your control, especially with shipped eggs.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

Florida Incubation Troubleshooting
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Well... not too experienced in the hatching process, I did it once before with better success. Not exactly sure what you mean by Duss over them? As for candling them, I did in the first week or so, but not lately.

Yes, I bought the eggs, they shipped to me, two different shipments. 2/13 (americanas) hatched and 3/6 (silkies) hatched

The temp really never spiked or dropped, I did however kept putting warm sponges in to raise humidity towards the last few days.

I want to try again so I am not giving up!

Thanks for your advice,



Yes, I bought

Sorry, that was supposed to be 'fuss' over them.
I quit candling before 10 days because the embryo is so fragile early on, and that helped a lot with my hatch rate. When I was new I candled every few days

I am an expert at fussing, apparently.

If they were shipped eggs, then it probably isn't anything you did. They just had a rough trip. When I buy eggs, I expect a 25-30% hatch rate. When its better I am ecstatic!