Strange hatch

[Farmer Kitty]

My neighbor's hatch started on Monday and is still going on. She has 12 chicks and 13 eggs left. They were due on Tuesday, all set at the sametime, in the same incubator. When I candled them at day 14, or was it 15, they looked to be the same stage.

Has anyone else had this happen? Anyone know why the hatch may have dragged out like this?

 

[newdock]

My best guess would be that the incubator has hot and cold spots. Is it still air or perhaps the fan isn't working properly?

 

[christytrav]

I have noticed with my Hova-bator still air that the eggs toward the right side develope faster and are the first to hatch. On my last hatch I moved eggs into the "hot" spot as others hatched out of it. If that makes sense. Once I moved them to that spot things seemed to happen a little faster.

 

[KattyKillFish]

different machines, different people, different household temperatures... many things will effect development and hatch rate. it is different for everyone. hot/cold spots in the incubator can also do that. it's different every time. i can't say incubation is consistent every time.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

It's a Brower Top hatch so it has a fan.

I don't know about the hot spots theroy. One egg hatches here and another there and the ones that are next to them either haven't, yet, or hatch quite a bit later. If it were hot spots shouldn't eggs that are next to each other be hatching roughly together and not a couple days apart, if that were the case? I could understand it if it was say one area of the bator that's hatching and then another but, when they are just hatching here and there?

She's kept the house temp roughly the same the hole time and the bator is in a draft free area. The temp has held steady. Humidity good.

It just seems strange to me that they are on day 25 today and still hatching--and not just waiting on an egg or two to see what they might do.

 

[TennesseeTruly]

My last hatch staggered from Day 19 to Day 25. Just when I was going to toss the last two eggs, they hatched on Day 25. I have no idea why they took so long, they just did.

Laurie

 

[sonew123]

mine are very staggered right now-I did it thatway though-never again-but the eggs that were supposed to hatch out on Thursday started Wed and haven't stopped hatching out! Im ok with that..

 

[jenjscott]

Other factors are the age of the egg and conditions before setting.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

They were all 7 days or under. All stored at room temp. Some are from her flock and some ee's from mine. All clean.