Reasons for Poor Hatch Rate

[shellshocked]

Last year we received some banty chickens from our neighbor. We hatched 2 out of 3 eggs first time around. A month later, we hatched 13 out 16 banty for ourselves & 5 out of 5 for another neighbor. We received baby chicks from a hatchery April 2010 and the hatch rate on those eggs is awful. 5 out of 24 this time around. Gave my sister-in-law 14 eggs to hatch. 0 out of 14. Both of us did the exact same thing as last year. Incubator set @ 98-100 degrees, plenty of water for humidity. Some eggs were pretty far along when the chick died. Any answers for this?

 

[FourPawz]

When eggs are mailed or shipped they go through a lot of harsh treatment that makes it almost impossible to get good hatches. It may have been your eggs got man-handled by the Post Office.

 

[chickened]

Way too many factors with shipped eggs so hardto say what happened. Most likely they were fertile but weak or something happened during incubation.

 

[shellshocked]

The Eggs were not shipped. We bought baby chicks and received them in April 2010. We were trying to hatch the eggs we are getting from those pullets.

 

[shagbarksilkies]

What kind of chickens are they

 

[chickened]

Oh sorry my bad, I would look to nutrition or incompatible/lethal genes.
Quote:

 

[shellshocked]

In one run there are Buff Orps, and RIR with a Buff Orp roo. In the other run there are EE's, Brown Leghorns & Black Australorps with a EE roo. They have free choice of 16% layer crumbles + we give them a little bit of scratch each day so I don't think malnutrition would be the cause.

 

[chickened]

They sound compatible except the brown leghorns they have some minor issues. A local hatchery had the same issues and found that his feed was not the protien level it was supposed to be he switched feed and his hatch rate improved. It sounds likefertility is there but weak. I would bump up the protein with fishmeal and see what happens.

 

[camalianus]

Try switching to another feed with at least 18% protein, then run another test. If fertility is still an issue, one of your rosters might be infertile. Are both roos doing they job mating the hens. Several years ago I had a beautiful white rock roo that was mating with everything else, but the hens.

 

[al6517]

Hatchery egg's was your problem IMO, God only knows all the things that can go wrong with hatchings eggs, Parent diet, egg viablity, age of eggs laid, shell quality, and hatching ability & experience. All of these factors should be consider and all of which hatcheries are not know for having very high standards. If I were hatching eggs and I do hatch hundreds every yr a hatchery is definitly the last place I would get eggs from. I hope you have better luck and get things Ironed out.

AL