Problems and questions with first hatch

[envirobg]

hi,
I've built my Own incubator (with styrofoam panels in a square box).

I put my first ever eggs (9 chicken) into it at 5pm on Sat 6th.

Question 1. Which day is day one ( sat 6th ?) or sunday 7th and which day is day 21(fri 19th?)

On Friday 19th one chick hatched .... I could see a second had pipped.
I opened the incubator and took the hatched chick out ( prob a bad idea) . The second one continued to hatch ... He broke a straight line half way around the shell- but along the underside - then stopped. No more movement from him so next morning ( saturday morning ) I opened it again and took out this egg ... He was dead inside the shell.
Could the hatched chick crawling over the remaining eggs caused them a problem ?

On Saturday 20th evening I could see a third moving and hear chirping ... But no sign of it pipping .... Now it has stopped.

its Sunday now and no sign of any movement, pipping or chirps. Is this normal ?

Any ideas what I should do now and wHat might have gone wrong.

I didn't candle any eggs .... I'm not sure I know how to exactly.. So I didn't bother.
Humidity did drop only momentarily to 55 when I opened the bator but has been holding steadily at approx 65 +\- 3 ... up to that.

If cHicks hatced on Friday does this mean temp was too high .... Or is that the correct day. ( though temp was very solid all along ... But just wonder if it was accurate.)
My bator uses a heat light in the middle and two fans at either end of the box drawing heat away from the light and circulating it .

i't probably unlikely now I'll get more to hatch so long after the first ?
Appreciate any advice ..
Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

An egg does not have a day’s worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after it goes in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for the egg to have a day’s worth of development. In theory it takes 21 days of development for a chicken egg to hatch. An easy way to check your counting, the day of the week you start them is the day of the week they should hatch. If you start them on a Saturday, they should hatch on a Saturday.

But that’s just theory. There are a lot of things that affect exactly when an egg hatches; heredity, humidity, how and how long the egg is stored, and just basic differences in the eggs. A big difference maker is the average incubating temperature. If the average incubating temperature is a bit warm, the egg can be early. If it is cool it can be late. I’ve had eggs hatch 2 full days early, both in an incubator and under a broody. Others have had them quite a bit late. I’ve had eggs hatch a full day before any other eggs had pipped. It really can vary a lot with each individual egg, though most of the time they all hatch within a day or so of each other.

With your homemade incubator especially, it is possible you have warm or cool spots. Because of that alone, I can’t tell you that your hatch s definitely over, though it probably is.

You’re dealing with living things so about anything is possible, but I’ve never had a problem with chicks crawling over eggs. The egg had partially zipped long after the other chick was removed. I sincerely doubt that chick crawling around had anything to do with it.

Some chicks are just not meant to make it, but I really can’t remember a chick starting to zip and not make it. What did that dead chick look like? Was the membrane shrunk around it, stopping it from hatching? It’s possible your opening the incubator caused enough humidity drop to cause that chick that had pipped problems, but that timing doesn’t sound quite right either. Again, that was a while after you opened the incubator.

How good was your ventilation in there? Again this doesn’t sound quite right, but the chicks and eggs need oxygen to breathe. If you don’t have sufficient air exchange, they can suffocate. This is not very important early in incubation but gets to be pretty important later as the chick develops. Maybe those fans were just circulating bad air, not bringing in fresh?

I don’t know what happened. Homemade incubators can be tricky. I think analyzing the unhatched eggs is a good way to learn. But it’s not always easy to figure out.

 

[envirobg]

Many thanks for your reply.
I don't think the membrane was shrunk around the second chick .... But this is my first time seeing a chick half-hatched.

How long after the chick zips should it come out of its shell- I can understand it might take a rest but I assume it should be out within 2 hours ?
I can understand that maybe some chicks won't make it and so I was heartened when I heard the third .. But am worried again now because I hear nothing at all.

On the third chick I could definitely hear him chirp and saw the egg move but no sign of a pip ..... Any ideas what could cause him to die in the shell so close to hatch ?

Regarding ventilation. .... I have vents on top and can feel some air coming out. I assume the fans are blowing this out ... If it comes out then it must be replaced somewhere by fresh air.... But by how much I don't know. Is there any guide on how much / many vents I should have ?

Regards

 

[Chickens R Us]

If you put them in on the 6th they shouldn't hatch until the 27th. 21 days for chicks to hatch. I can't believe yours are starting to hatch already, unless I'm not reading this right.

 

[envirobg]

Sorry - yes my typo error - went in the week previous at 5pm on 29th Saturday (not 6th) ......

As my first chick hatched a day early do this mean temp was too high ?

 

[chickydee64]

Sorry - yes my typo error - went in the week previous at 5pm on 29th Saturday (not 6th) ......

As my first chick hatched a day early do this mean temp was too high ?

This is just a thought...you said two fans.I have not had this experience but have read that
sometimes the fan. (fans in your case). can cause shrink wrap..............dries the membrane out???????????
Also really agree about the hot and cold spots in the incubator causing different hatch dates.
I have a still air and move my eggs once week to try to be sure they all get the same amount of heat......
Good Luck......Hope it works out for you...................

 

[Chickens R Us]

I bought a book on Amazon called Hatching and Brooding your own chicks by Gail Damerow Very informative book. I highly recommend reading this book before incubating. I did my first hatch this spring. I set 11 eggs 1 was infertile 1 never pipped 9 hatched, 1 chick died a couple of hours after hatching, 8 healthy baby chicks. This is great for a first hatch and I think it's all due to reading this book and asking questions on BYC.

 

[envirobg]

thanks Chickydee for your reply,

Ya - I put in two fans thinking it would eliminate the potential of hot / cold spots in the incubator.... but didn't realise it might cause other problems.

I think I'll stop the incubator today and disect the remaining eggs and try to figure out what went wrong...
Is there any particular place on this forum that I might be able to post pictures of the disected eggs for people to offer opinions of why it didn't work ?

it might be a good learning exercise ?
regards

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’d start a new thread in this section of the forum, incubating and hatching. Be fairly specific in the title to get the right people’s attention. Who sees these threads is pretty random. Your title for this thread was good, much better than just saying “help”.

It sounds like you had plenty of air movement, but maybe with those two fans you need a higher humidity than a lot of other people during hatch? That’s why analyzing the egg sis a good idea. Even the same commercial models can have differences due to manufacturing tolerances and may require slight differences. At least you know yours will hatch eggs. Now it’s time to tweak it.

If you want to, you can do the float test. Put the unhatched unpipped eggs in a bowl of water. They better float or they are no good at this point. If there is a live chick inside the egg will wiggle on its own. If it lies dead in the water, there is nothing alive in there. As long as it hasn’t pipped, it won’t hurt it to float it n water a little while.

 

[aoxa]

The earliest I've ever had a chick hatch is four days early. I was given them, and believe they were a few days along before I got them in the incubator. Seriously.. at two days in (48 hours) there were heartbeats.

If this is 48 hours I'll be a monkey's uncle. My incubator was not too hot. It was perfect. The eggs I put in from my flock the same day hatched a day early, which is normal for me.

They internally pipped 5 whole days early.