Unsuccessful silkie hatch

[Jessie404]

Hi, I had a dozen silkie cross eggs that were all 25% leghorn (and 75% silkie). A couple weren't fertile when I checked them on Day 7, which I think is normal. All were growing very well into lockdown. When hatch day arrived, nothing was happening. The next day two of the eggs pipped but took far longer than normal to hatch. I assisted with both because they couldn't finish zipping (12 hours plus), and stopped turning in the egg. One of them hopped straight out and slept for a while (normal). The other stayed curled up in its egg, still chirping and breathing, so I left it in there. The next morning the one in the egg had died... I don't think that is normal. None of the other eggs has done anything so on Day 25 I water tested and candled them, with no sign of movement and no internal pips. I decided to do an eggtopsy on one of them and found a dead chick with just a little bit of yolk left to absorb. No other eggs hatched, I am assuming the same thing happened. Any idea on what caused this?

 

[Pyxis]

Can you give us a bit more info on your incubating technique? As in, what temperature did you use, is your incubator still air or forced air, what humidity did you keep the eggs at during the first 18 days, how often did you turn them etc?

When you did the eggsopsy, did you find anything unusual like liquid in the eggs, or did they look really dry, anything like that?

 

[Jessie404]

The temp was 38.2-38.0 C and 30-50 percent humidity during first 18 days, 37.5 C and 60-65 humidity for lockdown. Fan-forced and auto-turning incubator that slightly turns them in air cell up position every 2 hours.
Ps. They were shipped eggs, and I hatched upright in cartons for air cell stability.
In the eggtopsy all blood vessels were absorbed, no-very little liquid, moist membrane. Chick was wet.

 

[Pyxis]

Temp was a little high, but nothing crazy - 37.5 is what you want to aim for in a forced air incubator.

It might have been the humidity. Next batch you do, you might want to try weighing them and tracking weight loss to find out where you want your humidity to be for your area.

And of course, shipped eggs are always harder. It may have just been development issues from the shipping.

 

[JaeG]

The blood disappears very quickly from the veins in the membrane when the chick dies.

Did you have the vents open/plugs removed to maximize ventilation in the incubator? That's something that's easy to forget to do.

Being shipped eggs you have no control over the health of the flock the eggs have come from or how well they are fed. Shipping can be very stressful on the eggs too.

 

[Jessie404]

Thanks for the info, I recently bought some 5 week old silkies so I will trial and error with their eggs.
I just found it weird that they made it so far and died, especially since the yolk was almost fully absorbed, which I read is what they usually do once they have pipped. I also got some Plymouth Rock eggs from the same person, which was very successful with the same conditions (10 out of 12 hatched). So I thought it was something to do with the silkie breed in general, for example they require different temps and humidity than other breeds.

 

[JaeG]

I have read that the vaulted skull, if it's quite large, can hinder the chicks ability to position themselves properly for hatch so that definitely could be another factor.