what is a normal hatch rate?

[The Rancho]

I find that my percentage is around 33.....I think it should be better. Is average around 50-75?

 

[Kermit's shadow]

It will vary enormously, affected by age of the birds, their diet and how inbred they are - mutts will almost always produce far more viable eggs due to hybrid vigor. With some ultra-rare breeds/colours it is an event to get a viable egg at all because of inbreeding depression.
Hatch rate from fertile eggs from good stock ought to be over 90%, approaching 100%.
A very approximate but reasonably accurate count here - so far this year, around 90 viable eggs set that should have hatched between early March and today - probably 5-10 failed to get out and of the ones that hatched - around 70 - one has died.
8 were due to hatch yesterday - 7 got out and the one that didn't was from birds that have produced low fertility/viability eggs all this season, though one of the 7 was from that pair too.

 

[yook2000]

I get 3 out of 12 showgirl eggs and 30 out of 64 quails eggs. Both of them are shipped and the chicks had prolbems when coming out from the eggs. They were weak and needed some help when getting out. Now two of the showgirls looked like haveing leg problems and I lost one quail chick everyday. After these bad experience, I would not buy shipped eggs from the seller too far from me.
I also did some eggs from local breeders. The hatching rate was usually above 80%.

 

[HHandbasket]

It also depends on whether or not your eggs were shipped. Shipped eggs have a tendency to have a hatch rate of around 50% or less, though I've known people to have near 100% hatch rates on shipped eggs; however, I think those instances are quite rare. I think temperature and how eggs were stored prior to setting has a lot to do with the outcome, as well.

I had one hatch that was so bad, I had set 32 eggs and only got 1 chick out of the whole mess, so I feel your pain.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It depends on how you calculate the hatch rate too. I can't remember the official formal definition. Somehow you don't count the ones that don't start to develop. Maybe someone who knows the correct way to calcualte it can explain the official way to do it. I'm pretty sure we don't all calculate hatch rate the same way.

There is no real average I know of. The way I look at it, if 70% of the eggs I set from my flock hatch, I'm doing OK. Not great, but OK. I always get a few that don't develop and I practically always get some that develop but don't hatch. For example, out of my last hatch, I set 18 eggs. Two did not develop at all and two developed but did not hatch. So I got 14/18 or 78% of the eggs I set and 14/16 that developed or 87.5%. To me, my hatch rate was 78% but officially, I believe it was 87.5%. I had one that pipped but did not zip. If I had chosen to help it, my hatch rate may have been even higher, but if they can't hatch without help, I don't want them in my flock and passing down those genes.

I have not hatched shipped eggs so I can't compare with those but I'd have pretty low expectations.

Do you analyze your unhatched eggs to see why they don't hatch? If you are consistently gettting 33% from your own eggs or shipped eggs, no matter how you calculate it, you have room for improvement.

 

[Lazydaizy]

It depends on how you calculate the hatch rate too. I can't remember the official formal definition. Somehow you don't count the ones that don't start to develop. Maybe someone who knows the correct way to calcualte it can explain the official way to do it. I'm pretty sure we don't all calculate hatch rate the same way.

There is no real average I know of. The way I look at it, if 70% of the eggs I set from my flock hatch, I'm doing OK. Not great, but OK. I always get a few that don't develop and I practically always get some that develop but don't hatch. For example, out of my last hatch, I set 18 eggs. Two did not develop at all and two developed but did not hatch. So I got 14/18 or 78% of the eggs I set and 14/16 that developed or 87.5%. To me, my hatch rate was 78% but officially, I believe it was 87.5%. I had one that pipped but did not zip. If I had chosen to help it, my hatch rate may have been even higher, but if they can't hatch without help, I don't want them in my flock and passing down those genes.

I have not hatched shipped eggs so I can't compare with those but I'd have pretty low expectations.

Do you analyze your unhatched eggs to see why they don't hatch? If you are consistently gettting 33% from your own eggs or shipped eggs, no matter how you calculate it, you have room for improvement.

Just adding for accuracy if anyone finds this post like I did. No the official hatch rate does not include those that developed but *didn’t* hatch. And if she had helped the one that pipped but didn’t zip, it wouldn’t have been strong enough to even live. I’ve helped numerous chicks that even have zipped… only ever had one survive and it was not a healthy chicken. Don’t help them, I tell myself everyone I won’t help them but I convince myself they got vacuum trapped when I took the other chicks out…. No no no they won’t survive.