Troubleshooting a weird hatch

[PippinChicken]

Looking for some advice from the experienced hatchers out there. Back in March, I incubated my first eggs. 13 eggs resulted in 13 healthy chicks; 1 hatched a day early and 1 hatched a day late, but the other 11 were right on day 21. I was feeling pretty confident in my incubator, especially considering that those eggs were shipped from nearly 2,000 miles away.

At the beginning of May I picked up a dozen eggs from a local breeder. I didn't change a thing since I'd had such great success last time. This time around, I had 2 clears and 2 early quitters. Of the remaining 8, all thankfully hatched but it wasn't as successful as last time. One was malpositioned, 3/8 were a day late, and ALL of them hatched with the waste and cord still attached. The yolk was all absorbed and there was no blood or intestines or any of that, just the waste that usually ends up in the shell. Their navals also looked swollen rather than flat against their body, and a few seemed to have abnormally large abdomens.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what could have caused this? It was very unexpected since the last hatch was so perfect and I didn't change a thing. I'm not planning on hatching any more this season but would like to know what went wrong so I can avoid it in the future.

Thanks!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Since your first hatch went so well and on time, I'd say your temperature is spot on and I'll ignore anything incubator related with this hatch. I'd say the issues with this group are related to either breeder nutrition, (malposition, low hatch rate, swollen abdomen)
age of the breeders, (malposition [old breeders], low hatch rate)
eggs stored too long or improperly. (late hatch, low rate)

 

[PippinChicken]

Since your first hatch went so well and on time, I'd say your temperature is spot on and I'll ignore anything incubator related with this hatch. I'd say the issues with this group are related to either breeder nutrition, (malposition, low hatch rate, swollen abdomen)
age of the breeders, (malposition [old breeders], low hatch rate)
eggs stored too long or improperly. (late hatch, low rate)

Thanks for the reply! I was wondering if it could all be caused by non-incubator issues...not because I'm super experienced or anything, just because the last one went so perfectly. Unlike the first breeder I bought from, this one didn't mark the eggs with when they were collected so I really don't know how fresh they were. They did also have an interesting start...I was supposed to meet up with the breeder to purchase them, but then something came up so she left them in a shaded cubby outside for me. It had been a few hours between her putting them there and me arriving, and when I got there one of her employees had stuck them in his truck thinking they were for him Drove them home with every intention to get them in the prepped incubator ASAP...and then got a flat tire and didn't actually make it home for several more hours

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You said the first batch travelled 2000 miles.
I was going to mention that it doesn't matter how far they travel but how much jostling they get in the process. How many times they drop from the end of a conveyor belt and how far into the bins they drop. Siting on a long plane ride doesn't bother them.