Incubation help please.

[miss_thenorth]

I had some chicks hatch on the 8th. 24 eggs set, temp steady, I do not have a hygrometer, but followed the instructions as I always do. I had 4 dud eggs. 14 hatch, two died. Of the rest, they had large yolks that were obviously not absorbed. some of the chicks had even pipped, but did not make it. when I opened the eggs, I found huge yolks attached to them. I collected eggs for three days, and stored them properly prior to incubation. Any foresight as to what happened?

 

[Wildsky]

I had some chicks hatch on the 8th. 24 eggs set, temp steady, I do not have a hygrometer, but followed the instructions as I always do. I had 4 dud eggs. 14 hatch, two died. Of the rest, they had large yolks that were obviously not absorbed. some of the chicks had even pipped, but did not make it. when I opened the eggs, I found huge yolks attached to them. I collected eggs for three days, and stored them properly prior to incubation. Any foresight as to what happened?

Do you mean there were chicks and they didn't develop after a certain point, or just that the eggs had nice big yolks attached to the shell?

Did you make note of how large the air pocket was on those?

If some hatched it shouldn't be a problem with humidity or anything, did you check for fertility on those eggs (not sure if you can after incubating)

Keep an eye on the eggs you eat to check for fertility, thats all I can think of.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Sorry for my lack of clarity. there were chicks in the eggs, some of the chicks had pipped, but didn't make it further than that. After I had given the eggs plenty of time ( an extra day) to hatch, i opened the eggs. The chicks in those eggs had large yolks still attached to the chicks bottoms. I didn't look at the air cells. Most of the chicks in question were almost completely developed but still had the large yolks attached to them.

 

[Wildsky]

Sorry for my lack of clarity. there were chicks in the eggs, some of the chicks had pipped, but didn't make it further than that. After I had given the eggs plenty of time ( an extra day) to hatch, i opened the eggs. The chicks in those eggs had large yolks still attached to the chicks bottoms. I didn't look at the air cells. Most of the chicks in question were almost completely developed but still had the large yolks attached to them.

Hmm then something happened right before they hatched, would it be possible the temp dropped suddenly?

 

[patandchickens]

It does not really mean anything much to have unabsorbed yolks at that point -- normally what happens, AFAIK, is that they pip and then finish absorbing the yolk sac, so if they died just after pipping, or before pipping, you would EXPECT unabsorbed yolk.

One oft-mentioned cause of mortality around pipping time (particularly if these were the later eggs to pip) is insufficient ventilation -- it is possible to have a situation where there is enough for the already-hatched chicks but they are using up enough O2 that the not-yet-hatched ones, who can't cluster near the vents, get suffocated.

Another possibility is if you opened the incubator at *all* partway through the hatch, the not yet hatched ones may have lost enough moisture to get somewhat 'shrink wrapped' in the egg and not be able to hatch. I do not really understand why this happens from just a brief opening of the incubator but it *does* IMO seem to happen sometimes.

Too high or too low temps or humidities can also cause chicks to be too large, or too weak, to pip and hatch -- although I would not guess that to be your situation unless all these unsuccessful eggs were in one particular area of the incubator.

Good luck, 14/20 is really a pretty good hatch rate all things considered ,

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

The only time th incubator was opened was 24 hours after the first one hatched. We took the 14 out, and quickly closed it again--hoping the other ones might have hatched out. That must have been what did it then--they weren't quite ready, then with short temp and humidity drop must have sealed their fate.

I do think 14 out of 20 is good, but I was wondering why the others didn't, as it looked like they were real close.

So the next question woul dbe, how long can they stay in the incubator before they need to be removed. I thought it was 24 hours. Could they have gone longer, thereby increasing the chances for the other 6?

 

[Wildsky]

I would have taken the hatched ones out at that point as well, I don't think you did anything wrong.

I've opened my incubator during the hatch before, so long as the room is warm, it shouldn't be too bad.

I just opened mine a weee bit, I didn't take the lid right off. I also had a space heater on right next to me, and I added wet papertowels to the incubator.

I found a nest year before last when I was collecting eggs - mom was off getting scratch and there was an egg zipping in the nest, the chick hatched out completely before mom even came back! (boy was she surprised! )

 

[Bettacreek]

I have actually heard that this could be due to a bacterial infection. I had the same issue with some of mine. Personally, I doubted it, and just started helping chicks out of eggs. I wait a few hours after the first one has hatched, then anyone left in the eggs gets "yanked" out. I go through them, start with anyone who is zipped, then go on to pips, then onto the rest of them. Do this SLOWLY. Most importantly is to get their heads out of the shell. If you can manage this without bleeding them out, then you've pretty much accomplished the hardest part, and your chances of survival have just flown out the roof. There's a certain vein that you will probably need to push behind their heads. It's a very tough vein, but you need to make sure that you don't destroy it if it's full of blood. I started out slowly and gently and have become more comfortable with helping them out. I now use my finger nails to grab the tip of their beak and their egg tooth to pull them out. You do have to be FIRM but gentle, so that you don't injure the beak. They're much tougher than you would think though. I have lost two that I've helped, out of probably at least a hundred. I used to lose a LOT, almost entire hatches, and they were all at the same stage that you're finding your's.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

I get this quite a bit with my eggs, the incubation goes well, but something gets botched in the hatch. I think humidity is the largest factor. You had such a good hatch rate though, I would dare say that those that didn't make it were just meant not to make it. I think sometimes chicks just get so exhausted during the hatch, or the humidity drops, or suffication, that they just don't make it past that crucial point.

Even the best incubator, a mother hen, will usually lose one or two at hatch.