spaced hatch questions?

[Grizhawk]

Need some advice/expertise. I had a broody recently hatch some eggs, 4 out of 10. It took a full 7 days for her to hatch out the 4th after the 1st hatched.

I have 15 out of 18 still in the incubator. (First time hatcher by the way) Yesterday was day 14 and we decided to candle again. I noticed 4 eggs seem to now be up to a week behind the rest in development. All still viable and swimming around. What could this be from? I thought perhaps my hen did something wrong but now not sure. I am very curious now.

Chicken breeds are as follows...
barred rocks,
golden sex links,
silver wyandottes,
golden wyandottes,
blue andalusians,
easter eggers,
salmon faverolles,
And my roo is an Easter egger.
any thoughts?

 

[nchls school]

Need some advice/expertise. I had a broody recently hatch some eggs, 4 out of 10. It took a full 7 days for her to hatch out the 4th after the 1st hatched.

I have 15 out of 18 still in the incubator. (First time hatcher by the way) Yesterday was day 14 and we decided to candle again. I noticed 4 eggs seem to now be up to a week behind the rest in development. All still viable and swimming around. What could this be from? I thought perhaps my hen did something wrong but now not sure. I am very curious now.

Chicken breeds are as follows...
barred rocks,
golden sex links,
silver wyandottes,
golden wyandottes,
blue andalusians,
easter eggers,
salmon faverolles,
And my roo is an Easter egger.
any thoughts?

"4 out of 10-15 out of 18-hen did something wrong" Quite confusing-please clarify. Are these two separate settings of eggs? Are you sure the eggs are viable and not embryos that have died in the shell. If you are not experienced it can be hard to tell the difference.

 

[Grizhawk]

Yes, 2 different settings. Broody hen hatched 4 out of 10. First hatch to last was 7 days. We bought an incubator to try and hatch our own. Placed 18 eggs in it. It's a brinsea octogon 20 ex advance. Day 8 we candled. 2 blood rings and one dud were removed. 15 remaining eggs looked good. All normal development and such. Eggs were selected and placed from that days egg collection. No older eggs. When we candled yesterday on day 14, 4 of the 15 are alive, but haven't developed much since day 8. I can see the embryo moving in all of them.

 

[nchls school]

Yes, 2 different settings. Broody hen hatched 4 out of 10. First hatch to last was 7 days. We bought an incubator to try and hatch our own. Placed 18 eggs in it. It's a brinsea octogon 20 ex advance. Day 8 we candled. 2 blood rings and one dud were removed. 15 remaining eggs looked good. All normal development and such. Eggs were selected and placed from that days egg collection. No older eggs. When we candled yesterday on day 14, 4 of the 15 are alive, but haven't developed much since day 8. I can see the embryo moving in all of them.

Have you candled eggs before? 11 embryos dying; I suspect that there is something wrong with the incubation process. Check your thermometer and humidity. They may be giving false readings. It is not normal for there to be a spacing of seven days between 1st and last chick hatched; unless new eggs were added after incubation started. Usually chicks will hatch close together when they are brooded by a hen.

 

[Grizhawk]

The hen story is for comparison. They were not all her eggs. I found it odd the last one hatched on day 28 is all. Now I am seeing the same thing in the bator. Temp is at 99.6, humidity is at 45. Have seen really no variation. I have no way of checking acuracy. I have ruled out Andalusian eggs and easter eggers as slow developers. But I really don't know what hen laid what egg other wise.

 

[nchls school]

The hen story is for comparison. They were not all her eggs. I found it odd the last one hatched on day 28 is all. Now I am seeing the same thing in the bator. Temp is at 99.6, humidity is at 45. Have seen really no variation. I have no way of checking acuracy. I have ruled out Andalusian eggs and easter eggers as slow developers. But I really don't know what hen laid what egg other wise.

Most chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch; I am unaware if different varieties have a different incubation period. The only variety that I know that is different are seramas due to their smaller size. Mine hatched in 19 days. I will be curious as to what others say.

 

[Grizhawk]

I am too. Most all of my information comes from this site, so I kindof know what to expect. We gave the broody hen the eggs to sit on after we knew good and we'll she meant business. She was isolated and egg count always remained the same. The only thing I could think of is she seemed to abandon at day 18. It was only a high of 37 degrees that day and she was off the nest for at least 6 to 9 hours. To me that explains the late death in some of the eggs. I was also surprised to see her stay at it till day 28.

 

[nchls school]

I am too. Most all of my information comes from this site, so I kindof know what to expect. We gave the broody hen the eggs to sit on after we knew good and we'll she meant business. She was isolated and egg count always remained the same. The only thing I could think of is she seemed to abandon at day 18. It was only a high of 37 degrees that day and she was off the nest for at least 6 to 9 hours. To me that explains the late death in some of the eggs. I was also surprised to see her stay at it till day 28.

6-9 hours-you were lucky to get anything.. Yes, it is unusual for a hen to continue to brood eggs after some have hatched; unless the first chicks are taken away. Removing chicks will induce the hen to continue brooding eggs.

 

[Grizhawk]

I moved chick starter and water closE enough to her nest that she could reach it, installed a heat lamp but otherwise let nature do its thing. She showed them food and water while setting. That was pretty cool to see