What went wrong? 40 viable eggs going into lockdown, only 14 hatched!

[A-Texas-Man]

Today is day 24 and there have been no new eggs hatch for over 24 hours. 26 left in the incubator.

I had 40 viable eggs going into lockdown on day 18. The eggs began peeping on day 19 and hatching on day 20, with a total of 13 eggs hatching by the day 21, and one late hatcher that began peeping on the night of day 19, but hatching early on day 22. Since then, there have been no peeping at all.

The first six eggs hatched throughout the night of day 19 causing the humidity spike up to 85% or more and stayed there. Late on day 20, I decided to open some vent holes to slowly bring the humidity down, which I did and got down to 65% by the end of day 20. I have kept the humidity at between 65% and 75% since then.

This was a mixed batch of eggs. I had some medium dark Maran eggs, Easter egger eggs, Olive egger eggs, Welsumer eggs, Wyandotte eggs, and a couple more. These were all collected from my own flock which were all fertilized by two Copper Maran roosters, which I borrowed from a friend because I had no roosters of my own (Bobcat got mine). The incubator was mistakenly set to 100 degrees, since day one, because my previous incubation attempt was for peafowl eggs, and I forgot to lower the temp to 99.5, for these chicken eggs. The humidity was kept pretty stable at around 50% for the first 18 days.

So, what went wrong? Going into lockdown, I had an extremely successful incubation, with 95% of the original eggs still viable and alive at day 18. I only lost two eggs, one of which was not fertile. Only one died during incubation in the first 18 days. This is extremely high for a consumer grade styrofoam incubator. I could have not asked for better results going into lockdown. But with only 14 out of 40 eggs hatching, something must have massively gone wrong during lockdown. What could have caused such a massive loss? Was it the humidity spike? Was it the higher temperature? Was it me lowering the humidity?

 

[nuthatched]

Did you calibrate it?

 

[DemeterAD9]

A humidity spike at lock down should not have had any effect, I don't think a temp of 100 would cause issues either. I have a couple theories.

First you should check the incubator, make sure the humidity and temp is right. You'll want to test both with something more reliable than the incubator itself. Then check the unhatched eggs, see how many internally pipped but not externally. Also check how well absorbed the yolks are. See if they were in the proper hatching position while you are at it.

Take note on which eggs hatched, see if one breed did better than the others. Sometimes eggs with a thicker shell and heavier pigment layer won't lose as much weight as the rest of the batch. I've had issues with one of my darker OE's eggs because of this.

One thing that could have gone wrong is high humidity during the first 18 days, causing them to not drop enough weight leading to too much fluid they could not absorb before having to pip. Meaning they drowned. Depending on your humidity in the house, it may be better to do a dry hatch and only add water during lock down. I did a dry hatch last time in my cheap off brand incubator and the humidity held at about 30-40%. Only 3/28 failed to hatch (2 being from previously mentioned OE).

Another thing that could have happened is there wasn't enough ventilation in the incubator leading to them suffocating. Once the chicks start internally pipping and breathing air I would think they'd need more available O2. If the incubator is packed full then this is pretty important. But if this were the case I feel some of the chicks would have died after hatching too so I can't say for sure. A lot of incubators have adjustable vents you can open or close to help with this. Mine doesn't but it is forced air and I often check the eggs daily so they get plenty of fresh air. Is your forced air (has a fan)?

 

[Susan Skylark]

Are your eggs actually dead or are you just impatient? If they are just slow, a little more time is the best cure, though it is hard to wait! If you have opened eggs or water candled and confirmed they are dead then you can start troubleshooting the hatch: humidity isn’t going to tank a hatch, temperature spikes above 103 or below 97 for several hours could certainly cause issues. If the incubator temp is steady (confirmed with external thermometer) then I’d look at stress or trauma to your pre or early incubation eggs including near freezing temp exposure, shipping, over 10 days old, or turning issues early incubation (all have great development initially but can result in 50-75% embryonic loss up until hatch).

 

[A-Texas-Man]

The eggs are still in the incubator and no new activity today, Tomorrow is day 25. If there is no activity tonight, I may try and eggtopsy tomorrow

 

[Debbie292d]

Do you have a hygrometer/thermometer to double-check the incubator settings? It could be they are off. I have three Brinseas and none of them are correct.

The health of the parents would be my next suspect. If they're on a layer feed or all-flock, and getting enough feed, meaning they're not filling up on treats and/or bugs from free-ranging, they should be good to go. You can try upping their protein and Vit E a little while they're laying eggs for you to hatch, or just put some Poultry Cell in their water a couple of times a week.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The eggs began peeping on day 19 and hatching on day 20, with a total of 13 eggs hatching by the day 21, and one late hatcher that began peeping on the night of day 19, but hatching early on day 22....................... The incubator was mistakenly set to 100 degrees

So basically the ones that did hatch hatched about on time. That implies the temperature was about right but it is still a good idea to confirm the actual temperature.

I'll link a troubleshooting guide that might help you in your eggtopsy.
Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

These are all eggs from your flock so nutrition was the same for all of the hens and roosters. Egg storage conditions would have been the same. They were not shipped.

One thing I'd look for in the eggtopsy is whether they were shrink-wrapped. I would not think the humidity got low enough to cause shrink-wrap but your lowering the moisture is the only thing that stands out as different.

During incubation, were the eggs pointy side up or down? If pointy side up, some of the chicks may not have been in position to hatch.
Good luck on figuring this out. It sounds strange.

 

[Debbie292d]

So basically the ones that did hatch hatched about on time. That implies the temperature was about right but it is still a good idea to confirm the actual temperature.

I'll link a troubleshooting guide that might help you in your eggtopsy.
Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

These are all eggs from your flock so nutrition was the same for all of the hens and roosters. Egg storage conditions would have been the same. They were not shipped.

One thing I'd look for in the eggtopsy is whether they were shrink-wrapped. I would not think the humidity got low enough to cause shrink-wrap but your lowering the moisture is the only thing that stands out as different.

During incubation, were the eggs pointy side up or down? If pointy side up, some of the chicks may not have been in position to hatch.
Good luck on figuring this out. It sounds strange.

I agree with all of this, but some chicks may still hatch in adverse conditions. We see that proven by those who had their incubator turned off for over 12 hours, and 2/3 of them hatched. The others were apparently weaker and couldn't.

Another example, in one of my later shipments, I had one shipped egg hatch out of 18, but 22 of 22 I hatched at the same time hatched just fine. What did they go through that the one was able to overcome? Temperature? Being tossed like a football during transit? Who knows, but that one sure is a spunky one!

 

[Finnie]

Late on day 20, I decided to open some vent holes

This is the only red flag I see, if by this you mean that there were no open vent holes prior to this.

Another thing that could have happened is there wasn't enough ventilation in the incubator leading to them suffocating.

I wonder if there was enough oxygen for the hatched chicks but not enough to make it into the unpipped shells.

Or, could lack of oxygen throughout the incubation period have stressed out a high percentage of chicks, causing the stressed ones to be unable to survive the hatching process.

I have seen it before where embryos look viable at lock down, but then die during the hatching process, and sometimes hatch weakly, and then die soon after. So alive at lockdown doesn’t necessarily mean still viable.

It would definitely be interesting to know if the survivors were all one breed or a random sampling across the board. Also whether the survivors were all in the same location in the incubator, because sometimes there is variation in the conditions.

 

[ella2025]

Did you candle your eggs throughout the incubatoon? How long were your friend's rooster (s) in your flock before you collected the eggs? When I introduced a new rooster to my flock it took over 2 weeks for the hens to stop bullying him and let him mate them. My Halloween hatch had a similar result to yours, most of the eggs not hatching by day 25 and only 4 chicks hatching, although I was 100% certain all eggs but 1 were fertilized. I think what happened with my hatch was that the eggs were too old, collected within 2 weeks of setting them turning them often, but I'm still unsure. If you are certain those unhatched eggs were fertile, then we have the same problem we'll have to dig into more.