Thoughts on failed hatches?

[Old_McDonalds_Farm]

1st incubator hatch (used broody hens last year) I started with 43, ended up with 24 fertile, as 2 girls haven't been with the rooster long.

9 hatched on day 21, 11 hatched on day 22, 1 hatched early on day 23 and 1 i had to assist hatching in the evening. 2 failed to hatch. Would love input on what went wrong to learn from it! *warning pics attached of failed hatches*

*The Assist: pipped during the day 22, by evening day 23 I slowly assisted as it had made no progress, just the beak poking out & membrane turning brown. I chipped a little shell back & waited multiple times. Chick was turned with its back in the majority of the air cell, membrane was shrunked down to the chick and was thick & sticky, almost rubbery. Kept flailing and peeping frantically, I chipped enough so it cleared its head & shoulder and immediately it shot itself out of the shell. I put it back in (alone) with bottom shell on to rest but it has a tiny unabsorbed sac I believe. I cleaned everything and applied bacitracin, put back in incubator isolated on a puppy pad to keep it clean. Any thing else I should do? (1 pic, dark chick)

#1 fail to hatch. No pip, looked to be internal pip (assuming foot punctured) but candling it looked "dry". Safety hole made day 28 6am, 4pm no change, opened air cell, membrane shrinked tight. Opened membrane, no movement or breathing, foot up. Eggtopsied, chick was head down opposite end, right foot facing air sac. Yolk sac dime size not yet absorbed, with leg through the sac. (3x pics, out of shell)

#2 fail to hatch. Pipped on opposite side of air cell through shell day 21 late at night. Day 22 afternoon I noticed membrane at pip was dark brown and no movement. Opened up membrane & chick not moving or breathing. Chipped shell a bit back and saw pip was below the air cell. I assume it didn't get thru the membrane and couldn't get air, but also positioned upside down. (1 pic, in shell, air cell marked)

Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Debbie292d]

It sounds like the problems are with the air cells.

That happens a lot with shipped eggs, and about half the saddled eggs or those with air cells on the sides will hatch. The other half I've helped after all the others were hatched but them. Most made it, a couple along the way did not.

The one with the unabsorbed sac, I'd just leave in the incubator another day or two until it's absorbed and strong.

I'd try identify which hen these all came from as I suspect they came from the same one.

If you can't identify her, for the next time try marking the eggs by hen, like number them or put each hen's name on her eggs.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Sounds like you had a great hatch!

#1, the yellow one, looks like it put its foot through its yolk sac, and didn't absorb the yolk sac, so it was probably dead on day 18-19.

#2 tried to hatch out the side instead of through the air cell. Sometimes those are savable, but they often take one more day to be ready to hatch (the time of the external pip is about when they should have internally pipped) and by the time they're ready to go they're shrink-wrapped. Or they're not able to zip out because they're malpositioned in the shell. And sometimes they don't make it even if you try to help.

For what it's worth, I just had the same results: one dead in shell during attempted hatch, one that never pipped and looked like day 18-19 when I did an eggtopsy. But that was only out of 12 eggs, so you had a much better successful hatch rate! I think 1 or 2 not making it out of that many is totally expected.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Sorry, I saw this post and thought it was an actual failed hatch! After reading you lost 3 eggs out of twenty I’m not feeling sorry for you any more! Statistically speaking, sexual reproduction is never perfect, the creation of new life is messy at best, and practically speaking a miracle every single time it works! Do you know how many things have to go perfect with every single attempt!? Even in mammalian pregnancy the early miscarriage rate is fairly high depending on species. You’re going to lose some either from deformities (some you can’t see) or just dumb chance (cracked egg, backwards, double yolk). Enjoy those babies, keep learning from the failures and give yourself a break, as very little of it is actually in your control!

 

[Slothinc]

I think it sounds like you had a great hatch rate. The only thing I might suggest is that it sounds like your incubator might be running a tad cool (.5-1 degree cooler than it should) due to the majority of them hatching after day 21.

 

[Old_McDonalds_Farm]

Sorry, I saw this post and thought it was an actual failed hatch! After reading you lost 3 eggs out of twenty I’m not feeling sorry for you any more! Statistically speaking, sexual reproduction is never perfect, the creation of new life is messy at best, and practically speaking a miracle every single time it works! Do you know how many things have to go perfect with every single attempt!? Even in mammalian pregnancy the early miscarriage rate is fairly high depending on species. You’re going to lose some either from deformities (some you can’t see) or just dumb chance (cracked egg, backwards, double yolk). Enjoy those babies, keep learning from the failures and give yourself a break, as very little of it is actually in your control!

Sorry, I didn't mean to indicate the whole hatch failed. Just curious if there was anything I missed on the ones that failed to hatch to watch for next time

 

[Old_McDonalds_Farm]

I think it sounds like you had a great hatch rate. The only thing I might suggest is that it sounds like your incubator might be running a tad cool (.5-1 degree cooler than it should) due to the majority of them hatching after day 21.

I definitely want to calibrate and test temps before next hatch and also make sure I'm not getting hot/cold spots. Nearly everyone who hatched day 21 was on the left side section and from 2 hens.

 

[Slothinc]

I definitely want to calibrate and test temps before next hatch and also make sure I'm not getting hot/cold spots. Nearly everyone who hatched day 21 was on the left side section and from 2 hens.

That’s a great plan!