what happend? concerning dead chicks.

[xchairity_casex]

so about 5 days ago was my first time ever hatching chicks for another girl who let me barrow her incubator to hatch a clutch of 12 eggs for her 4 hatched and doing wonderful i just gave them to her today. 4 eggs were unfertile,4 hatched one had a thin hairline crack in it when i got it and it died early on and one died i would guess on day 10. one was fully formed and ready to hatch but i seen must have gotten shrink wrapped when i was taking chicks out of the incubator. but 2 of them had made small openings in the eggs and were chirping strongly but those two died before making the openings any bigger. when i opened the eggs both had the egg yolks absorbed and were perfectly normal from what i could tell the membrane of both eggs were normal and soft just the like other chicks who had hatched. so my question is why didnt these two hatch? my thought was that both of these chicks were differant from the ones that had hatched becuase there heads were facing downward could this have cuased them trouble having all there body weight on top of there heads making them unable to move enough to break out more?

 

[midget_farms]

So their heads were below them. On the bottom of the egg?

Its likely they drown if that was the case. Not 100% a lot of chicks will pip (poke the hole) and not make it out. If you think some were shrink wrapped - these could have done that as well.

Inside the egg - the little guy pokes the first hole. Then they sit for a long time while the egg membrane stops the blood flow & the chick breathes through the hole they poked & the air sac. If they are head down sometimes they cant breath & when the membrane turns off... well you get the picture.

Another way this can happen is if they are too dry. Humidity needs to be in the 70's% for the hatch. don't ask how I know.

In any case once the membrane has turned off the chick will unzip. She has to twist & spin inside the egg & break the shell off in a line around the circumfrance. If the membrane is too dry it will be sticky & the chick can't spin in there to unzip the shell. Same result. Fully developed but couldn't get out. I did this to about 20 of mine on my first try. no fun.

 

[xchairity_casex]

only one was shrink wrapped the other 2 that died were perfectly fine in the shell. so next time i hatch eggs (if i ever ahtch eggs again) should i help it if it begins to break on the bottom of the egg?