Several eggs pipped on wrong side!!!

[MaryZoe]

I've hatched tons of eggs, and never has this happened. I had a recent batch in a 7-egg incubator and I want to say that 4 or 5 of the 7 pipped on the wrong side of the egg. What might cause that? I was hand-turning in a larger 'bator for a good part of the hatch, then moved them over to the auto-turn of the smaller incubator. I turned off auto turn with 3 or 4 days to go before the hatch. I've done that before, too, without problems. But what else might have caused so many chicks not to turn? Does anyone have experience or theories about this problem? I have a bunch more eggs to move over using the same technique, and I really want to avoid this mess (having to help them in their hatch process). Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'll do some guessing, I really don't know. I think it has something to do with the positioning of the eggs at some point.

Were the eggs flat or on end during storing, incubation, and/or hatch? If flat it should not matter, but if on end was the wrong side up at some point?

Were the air cells OK? Did they get messed up during shipping or storage before the start of incubating?

Were the eggs properly turned, especially early?

That's all I can think of. Good luck!

 

[MaryZoe]

I'll do some guessing, I really don't know. I think it has something to do with the positioning of the eggs at some point.

Were the eggs flat or on end during storing, incubation, and/or hatch? If flat it should not matter, but if on end was the wrong side up at some point?

Were the air cells OK? Did they get messed up during shipping or storage before the start of incubating?

Were the eggs properly turned, especially early?

That's all I can think of. Good luck!

Thanks for your hypotheses. The eggs were always stored pointy side down and hatched on their sides. But it is definitely possible that I did not turn them enough early on. I tend to turn the eggs only 3 times a day, since I work full time. I will be more careful about my turning now--sometimes I just roll them a bit to one side rather than a full rotation. I have another batch going now using the same technique. I will start rotating a lot more now! Thanks!

 

[bttrflymom69]

Eggs that don't have an adequate air cell develop can contribute to malpositions. Also, sometimes the chick is just a bit too big for the egg and fills up the space to max.

 

[MaryZoe]

Eggs that don't have an adequate air cell develop can contribute to malpositions. Also, sometimes the chick is just a bit too big for the egg and fills up the space to max.

 

[MaryZoe]

An inadequate air cell could be due to excess humidity. Maybe that was the problem. The size of the chicks would make sense if it weren’t so many chicks from different hens that pipped upside down.