Why Didn't They Hatch?

[SBFChickenGirl]

On the fifteenth of January, I placed 41 eggs in my incubator. 14 hatched. 2 had leg problems, so they died. I did an eggtopsy, and 15 eggs were completely developed, 3 were only partially developed, and 9 were unfertilized. I'm wondering why the 15 CHICKS DIDN'T HATCH???? I took the temperature and the humidity almost every day and have almost everything written down. Everything went well, except that 15 eggs didn't hatch. I don't know what I did wrong.

 

[HuskerHens18]

I've only ever had about a 50% hatch rate no matter how big or small the hatch is. Did you candle a lot? That can hurt them if done too often.
Were they shipped eggs? Those rarely hatch anyway.
Sorry about the bad turnout, at least you still have 12!!

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Sorry about your loss. Sadly, I don't have experience with incubators, so can't tell you what happened. There are lots of members her that know alot about them though.

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

No, they weren't shipped eggs. They came from my Golden Comet hens and Production Red Roosters. Actually, I don't think that I candled enough. Only twice, on day 10 and on day 15.

 

[chickens really]

What kind of incubator?
@WVduckchick

 

[Pyxis]

When you did the eggtopsy, did you see anything unusual? A lot of liquid in there, maybe, or perhaps the opposite, very dry with the membrane tight to the chicks? What humidity were you using?

Since you didn't candle a lot, were you tracking the growth of the air cells or weighing to track weight loss? What temperature and humidity were you using?

Don't worry about candling too much next time, that's not really a thing. Candling doesn't hurt them. For the article I wrote about embryo development, I candled that egg every single day. There were no adverse effects. Candling is no different than handling the eggs for hand turning, etc.

 

[Keeperofmunchkins]

It could be so many things. Did you turn the eggs by hand or was the turning automatic?
You say you checked the tempature but what kind of thermometer were you using and where? Because even with the incubator's built in thermometer and a second thermometer inside, it is possible the readings were not accurate.
It's also possible the heat was uneven inside so that there were cold or hot spots.
Another possibility is bacterial contamination from dirt on the eggs or inside the incubator. Unfortunately it is virtually impossible to know for sure.

Last year I had a batch of eight eggs develop (several more didn't develop at all) and make it to hatch and they all internally pipped... And then died, all except for one. And they were not shrink wrapped. I even assisted without doing any damage and one of the ones that died made it out but died a couple of hours after hatch. The single egg that did make it turned out to be a perfect little pullet who is still healthy to this day. It was heartbreaking so see them all get so close to making it then die for seemingly no reason.
The only thing I could figure was that it was a turning issue because there were two days where I had to leave the incubator unattended due to family emergency so could not turn them at all during that period.

 

[WVduckchick]

What kind of incubator?
@WVduckchick

Following along. The others have asked the questions I would have asked.

 

[chickens really]

Following along. The others have asked the questions I would have asked.

That's good...I just don't want to get too involved..
I'll follow behind you...

 

[SBFChickenGirl]

What kind of incubator?

It is a Farm Innovators Pro Series Digital Incubator.

When you did the eggtopsy, did you see anything unusual? A lot of liquid in there, maybe, or perhaps the opposite, very dry with the membrane tight to the chicks? What humidity were you using?

Since you didn't candle a lot, were you tracking the growth of the air cells or weighing to track weight loss? What temperature and humidity were you using?

Everything looked "normal". At least, it looked like what I expected it to. I've never done an eggtopsy before. The liquid levels seemed fine and the membranes seemed okay too.

I didn't track the growth of the air cells. I actually don't know what that is/know what it means.

The humidity was 50-60% the first 17 days and 60-70% the last days, and during hatching it was 65-75%. The temperature stayed between 99.5 Degrees F and 100.5 Degrees.

It could be so many things. Did you turn the eggs by hand or was the turning automatic?
You say you checked the tempature but what kind of thermometer were you using and where?

The turning was automatic. The temperature and the humidity were both tracked the built-in ones. I didn't put any extra thermometers/hydrometers in.