Worst. Hatch. Ever.

[ThreeLittleCritters]

In March I hatched eggs for the first time. It went really well up until lockdown. Then I made a rookie mistake and opened the incubator and ended up loosing about half of my eggs there at the end. I was really disappointed so I started collecting eggs again to have another attempt. That's where this hatch comes in. I set 18 eggs and only 3 made it to lockdown. Now it's day 21 and no pipping or anything. I'll give them a few more days but based on how this hatch has gone so far, I don't have much hope for these chicks. And I don't know where I went wrong! With the first hatch it was very obvious where my mistake was so I took that as a learning experience. This hatch there doesn't seem to be a common thread as to what went wrong. Based on the development of the dead eggs, it looks like they died at every stage. I'm using a LG forced air Styrofoam incubator. No temp fluctuations (stayed at 99-100). I did the dry method & humidity stayed at 25%.

The only thing that I can think of that MIGHT have impacted this hatch is that our rooster was attacked by a dog in March. The eggs I set the first time were from before the accident and the eggs from this one were after the attack. His injuries were mainly to his neck so I don't know why that would have messed up his "genetic material". Our rooster has made a full recovery and I know that he's fertilizing the eggs. I am concerned at the quality of the fertilization. Could that be an explanation?

I'm going to wait a while to try again. We have some young hens that should start laying this month so we will give this another go during the summer with eggs from the newer hens. I feel so bad because so far I've accidentally killed 20 something chicks! I need to figure out what went wrong so this won't keep happening!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is a fair chance those eggs in your first incubation were shrink-wrapped before you opened the incubator if your humidity was that low throughout the incubation, especially if the eggs had not yet pipped. The same humidity does not work for all of us. Some people do fine at 25% humidity. I do better at 40%. Other people use different humidities for best results. I don’t know what your humidity was during hatch either, hopefully much higher. There is some trial and error involved in figuring out which humidity works best for each of us.

Your problem is not coming from that attack on your rooster. Sometimes injuries can affect the fertility of a rooster, but it will not affect the genetic make-up. It is always possible the rooster has some issues not associated with that attack, either genetic, health, or nutrition, but that attack did not alter his DNA.

In general, if an egg dies during the first week of incubation or just doesn’t develop at all, it probably has something to do with what happened before the egg went into the incubator. That could be health, fertility, age, or nutrition of the flock or how or how long the eggs were stored. If it dies in the last week, it probably had something to do with your actual incubation. That could be heat, humidity, turning, having them up-side-down or other things.

If you open this link, then open the incubation troubleshooting article in the right hand column, you can see what might have caused a problem depending in when the chick stopped developing. There are so many different things that could have caused a problem at any stage it’s often not easy to figure out what was your real problem, but at least this can give you some clues.

Illinois Incubation troubleshooting
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res00-index.html

I sure wish you luck with it. It’s not always easy to figure out what caused it. My worst hatch came from eggs I picked up locally. I’m convinced my problem was that I shook the eggs so bad on those back country roads that most didn’t even start to develop. It had nothing to do with the eggs or the flock, but how I handled them. Totally my fault.

 

[rubyredder]

I also use the 'dry method' for incubation. Did you raise humidity during lockdown?

 

[ThreeLittleCritters]

There is a fair chance those eggs in your first incubation were shrink-wrapped before you opened the incubator if your humidity was that low throughout the incubation, especially if the eggs had not yet pipped. The same humidity does not work for all of us. Some people do fine at 25% humidity. I do better at 40%. Other people use different humidities for best results. I don’t know what your humidity was during hatch either, hopefully much higher. There is some trial and error involved in figuring out which humidity works best for each of us.

Your problem is not coming from that attack on your rooster. Sometimes injuries can affect the fertility of a rooster, but it will not affect the genetic make-up. It is always possible the rooster has some issues not associated with that attack, either genetic, health, or nutrition, but that attack did not alter his DNA.

In general, if an egg dies during the first week of incubation or just doesn’t develop at all, it probably has something to do with what happened before the egg went into the incubator. That could be health, fertility, age, or nutrition of the flock or how or how long the eggs were stored. If it dies in the last week, it probably had something to do with your actual incubation. That could be heat, humidity, turning, having them up-side-down or other things.

If you open this link, then open the incubation troubleshooting article in the right hand column, you can see what might have caused a problem depending in when the chick stopped developing. There are so many different things that could have caused a problem at any stage it’s often not easy to figure out what was your real problem, but at least this can give you some clues.

Illinois Incubation troubleshooting
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res00-index.html

I sure wish you luck with it. It’s not always easy to figure out what caused it. My worst hatch came from eggs I picked up locally. I’m convinced my problem was that I shook the eggs so bad on those back country roads that most didn’t even start to develop. It had nothing to do with the eggs or the flock, but how I handled them. Totally my fault.

Thank you for your thoughts! The link was awesome and very helpful. I will have to try a higher humidity next time. Hopefully that will help!

 

[ThreeLittleCritters]

Yes. I was shooting for 55-65 for lockdown humidity. It never went below 25 prior to lockdown.

 

[bird-brain]

Dry hatching doesn't work as well for me. I find that 30-35% during the first stages and then 70-74% (yep, 75% is too wet for my setup/location/ I don't know why the heck). Really I shoot for 72%.

I think your humidity in the 50s during lockdown is likely your culprit for your late stage deaths.

Next, what kind of thermometer are you using? LG thermostats drive me crazy. If your thermometer is not nist calibrated, don't assume accuracy. Calibrate it yourself using the freezing point and boiling point methods. When I have chicks quit in mid incubation it is usually low temps. I use 3 thermometers in my bators, and two hygrometers. I use high end xicar hygros to monitor my humidity.

If you are hatching for more than fun, i.e., you raise meat birds for your family or sell your poultry, the investment for a great thermometer and a better thermostat for the LG is truly worthwhile. I put a new thermostat in my lg this season and have been really happy I did. It's not the greatest thermostat, but much better than what I had and with good thermometers I can calibrate it without too much trouble.

I hope you have better luck on your next hatch!