Some input on my recent hatch

[greathorse]

I am finishing a hatch today. It is day 23 and I took all the chicks out of the hatcher and left the unhatched eggs but dont have much hope as they have not pipped. I did open two eggs that I was pretty sure were dead and they were, but the development was very complete no yolk absorption but looked like the chicks that hatched

Sportsman incubator
Sportsman Hatcher
incubated at 99.5 electronic themostat no issues with temp
incubator humidity at 38-42
Eggs candled good at 7 and 14 days
Hatcher temp 99.5 no issues
Hatcher humidity 56 %

Here is the kicker

I set 12 local eggs and 10 of 12 hatched
I set 24 shipped eggs and 3 of 24 hatched
The eggs I opened were from the shipped eggs and again very late development but I think the rest will not hatch. I am going to go another 24 hours but not much hope
I would think that if the problem was due to handling I would not get late development. Near as I could tell they did not try to pip. Everything that pipped hatched with only one exception.

Anyone have any ideas what killed my chicks? Do you think I just had weak chicks? They are Black Jersey Giants by the way

 

[KellyHM]

The PO can definitely mess up some eggs. Your humidity in the hatcher is pretty low too. It should be at least 65%.

 

[austinhart123]

uh im gonna say the PO had something to do with it

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

PO... they can be killer with boxes marked

FRAGILE. lol.

I can only imagine how they treat boxes that arn't marked.

 

[Akane]

If they develop past the first week I don't think it's shipping damage. The ones that fully develop and don't pip seem to usually be humidity issues. Either too low so the membrane is too tough to break or too high so they drown.

 

[Katy]

I think it is the shipping. I too have had hatches where my own eggs hatched just fine while the shipped eggs in the same bator had a very poor hatch.

 

[greathorse]

I seem to think that if they fully developed it would not be PO, it doesnt make sense to me that if the post office messed them up that they would go that far. How do I know if I had to much or too little Humdity and why would I have such a great hatch with the local stuff if the humidity is off.

Can it be a genetic thing if the chicks are just weak? I don't have any thoughts about going back on the breeder, but will likely not use him agian. These were an eggbid purchse. Lesson learned??

 

[lotzahenz]

I think the developing embryo must get damaged somehow in transit, and as the baby grows bigger, it just fizzles out. Maybe the blood supply is not sufficient? There are just so many variables in the shipping process, makes the few eggs that do hatch really expensive.

 

[greathorse]

Quote:
That it does. Not sure what to do as there are a couple of breeds that interest me a lot, but not sure about 20 dollars each for straight run chicks

 

[tazcat70]

I am gonna throw something out here...could it be that with shipped eggs, since they are a little older that they need higher humidity?

I say this because with shipping they have lost some of their own moisture. Has anyone tried this?