My chicks hatched late

[Mia G]

I have 24 eggs at different dates and their marked what day they layed. The first 4 haven’t hatched yet but they were layed on March 9 one of my March 10 eggs just piped and they are at day 29 and look like they are hatching fine but only one has piped yet and I’m confused. Help

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Are these chicken eggs? Do you mean day 19?

Or are these duck eggs, and you mean day 29. If duck, I'll bow out as I have not hatched duck.

If chicks, I presume you are using an incubator?

For either, your heat is likely not even which is why some are developing faster than others.

Also if they were layed March 9 and March 10, when did you set the eggs?

Backing up from the calendar 3 weeks (21 days) from today indicates a set date of March 17, which indicates the eggs were a week old. If stored correctly, they should be fine for age....if for duck you'd be March 10...so very fresh eggs.

Finally, you may have your humidity incorrect. Too much humidity causes water build up inside the egg which can drown the chicks.

There is so much to check on with incubators. (One reason why I use broody hens).

I'm curious...why did you set at different dates? That always makes any hatching outcomes harder as your protocol changes the last 3 days on lock down. That should be the same for all eggs.

LofMc

 

[Mia G]

These are chicken eggs and the temp is at 37 Celsius and 60 humidity which is a little high but I read that 60 humidity is ideal and their are about 3 every day from March 9 to 23 and I did that because we don’t have enough chickens to lay all 24 eggs in one day we have 6 hens and 1 rooster

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Okay...you've set yourself up for a challenge as your eggs are so differently developed.

You should be turning eggs until day 18, then increasing humidity on lock down....which will be too much for the developing eggs....so you will unfortunately have some odd results. It can cause malformation of chicks and poor hatches. Sorry.

If you don't have enough eggs to set in one day, store the eggs in a carton at cool room temperature, in a dark corner. Prop one end up with a pencil. Rotate the end each day.

When you have enough to set, preferably after the oldest egg is a week old, then set all eggs at the same time. Eggs begin to lose hatchability after 2 weeks from being laid.

Hopefully some expert artificial brooders will chime in on your best course of action now.

LofMc

 

[Mia G]

Update: the chick had not been chirping or moving for more than 24 hours and so we decided to take action we made the pip whole a little bigger and found out that the inner part of the egg had somehow suffocated the baby chick and it’s really sad because it looked perfectly developed and it breaks my heart that the little guy didn’t make it

 

[Anethema]

If he took 29 days to hatch there was something wrong I think. First calibrate that thermometer it almost sounds like your incubation temps were cold.

 

[Mia G]

It was 37 Celsius

 

[Anethema]

I understand but was the thermometer calibrated so you know it was reading correctly ?

 

[lazy gardener]

37 celcius is only 98.6*F. That is not high enough. for still air, you need 102*, and for forced air, you need 99.5*

As for the humidity, I am curious about where you got the information that 60% is a good humidity to use? Current trend is to use 30 - 40% during the first 18 days. Humidity is a tool which is used to ensure that your air cells are developing at the correct rate so the chick will be the correct size and able to position correctly so she can hatch.

Unless you have calibrated your thermometer and your hygrometer, using accepted calibration methods you have no way of knowing how accurate your equipment is. Even if you have 2 thermometers in agreement, they could both be wrong.

Before you risk the lives of any more chicks, I urge you to educate yourself on equipment calibration, incubator management, how to candle an egg and assess air cell sizes, how to adjust humidity to ensure proper air cell size at hatch date, and embryonic development. All that information and more can be found in "Hatching Eggs 101" in the learning center. Do an article search and paste that title into the search bar.