small crack in chick egg at day 17

[spruce creek]

Eggs started rocking yesterday!!! The kids are almost as excited as me!!

 

[spruce creek]

I'm pretty sure that my first chirper/rocker has died, I am so upset. Today is day 2 of no movement from an egg that wiggled and chirped for 2 days before.I put a towel over the incubator to help hold the humidity in and quickly slipped it out to candle it and couldn't even make sense of what I was looking at, but there was no movement I put it back in just incase I am wrong. I managed to keep the humidity from dropping below 65. But now I have a second egg that was chirping and rocking, yesterday and this morning it was rocking and chirping loudly, no pips, but now it is still and doesn't respond to whistling and chirping like it did before, I would whistle and it would chirp and wiggle. Just like the first egg. I am hoping it is getting ready to pip but so worried!!!

 

[MagicChicken]

I'm pretty sure that my first chirper/rocker has died, I am so upset. Today is day 2 of no movement from an egg that wiggled and chirped for 2 days before.I put a towel over the incubator to help hold the humidity in and quickly slipped it out to candle it and couldn't even make sense of what I was looking at, but there was no movement I put it back in just incase I am wrong. I managed to keep the humidity from dropping below 65. But now I have a second egg that was chirping and rocking, yesterday and this morning it was rocking and chirping loudly, no pips, but now it is still and doesn't respond to whistling and chirping like it did before, I would whistle and it would chirp and wiggle. Just like the first egg. I am hoping it is getting ready to pip but so worried!!!

The humidity may have been too high in the hatcher. My hatches go better between 45-60% humidity. And putting the towel over the incubator may have inhibited air flow. Chicks attempting to hatch do need ventilation. There are any number of other things that could have gone wrong, some of which might not be your fault. Here's a link to a good summary of hatching problems to get you started:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems

You didn't mention where you got your hatching eggs. If they were shipped to you that could be a part of the problem. If you got the eggs from a local breeder you might want to talk to them about ways to do things differently next time. If they were from your own birds, try again using different techniques. Or different birds (with different genetics.) It often takes people a few years to get the hatching glitches worked out.

 

[spruce creek]

I was wondering about the genetics, the eggs are from my own hen but she, and the rooster both come from the same place and I was wondering if there might be a bit of inbreeding going on within the flock they came from. I wondered about too much humidity because I went into lock down what I thought was a day early, but I was counting the day I put the eggs in as day one so I guess it was two days early. Oh the towel was only over the incubator for a minute while I took the first egg out to candle it, and my humidity went down from 75 to 65 from that second of opening. I didn't leave it on and had both vents open, I'm using a farm innovator incubator with the fan and egg turner(for first 16 days). I kept the humidity at 50-55 percent then upped to 70-75 after lockdown. I'm pretty bummed right now, but we will try again, I plan to get some eggs shipped early Spring. Do you think the egg shells might have just been too thick for the chicks to pip? There are still 5 other eggs in there that have not moved while I have been looking, and I don't think any chirps came from them so I am holding out a little hope they may still hatch. I am thinking something just went horribly wrong with this hatch. Oh and I have neighbours saying that I should have cracked the eggs because the mother hen would normally do that for the chicks, so I would need to do that to hatch any eggs. From people that have never hatched an egg just know someone else that did 20 years ago, ahhh.
The kids and I were so excited watching them rock and peep I am just heartbroken.

 

[BantyChooks]

Wait, you kept humidity at 50-55% during incubation?

 

[spruce creek]

I did until lockdown, then I upped the Humidity. Do you think that was too high? I want to try again, but don't want to drown my chicks. Its been a little drier here lately but we live in a very wet/damp climate. My husband collected some of the eggs for incubation while I was away and I think a few of them might have been a bit old.

 

[BantyChooks]

Did you check air cells? If not, you likely had insufficient weight loss, drowning them.

 

[spruce creek]

I thought the air cels looked good, but I have never done this before, I was worried I might have drowned them too. Do you think 50-55% humidity wasn't good? Should I aim for 45-50% next time for the first 18 days?? Next time I will mark the air cels to make sure they are growing to the right size.
Also if a chick starts to chirp does that mean it is through the first membrane? and if so how long can they survive before they make an external pip? would you assist a chick that was chirping and wiggling for over 24 hours or is it likely to be a weak or sickly chick if it can't pip the shell itself? In know lots of questions but I didn't want to assist too early either, and know I am thinking I should have once it wasn't chirping.

 

[BantyChooks]

Me, I run 25-30% for the first 18 days and have had more 'n half decent hatch rates. Just keep an eye on your AC, humidity levels are different for everyone.... But I don't think I've ever really seen one run 55% in a tabletop.
They are *usually* internally pipped once they start peeping, but not always. It can take up to 24 hours after internals to externally pip.

I would not assist a chick that couldn't at least pip on its own. I leave eggs be, in general, unless they get stuck zipping... Sometimes if it's a rare breed and they pip and then spin w/o zipping I'll give a safety hole to ensure adequate oxygen.

But, I have assisted a few, and even if they seemed healthy they were always the first to come down with diseases or parasites. Every person has a different take on it.

 

[spruce creek]

Thanks for all your feedback, I took out the ones that had been chirping and have gone still and quiet, yeah the air cel does look a bit small so they probably did drown. We will try keeping the humidity down for the first 18 days next time and see if that makes a difference. There is so much mixed info out there on hatching and humidity, I went by what I had read online and in the incubators instructions but I did lock down a bit early because go that crack in one of the eggs.