Strange Hatch

[wvgirl]

I have been getting my eggs from a very good source for several years. This year alot of the eggs are not hatching. Some are peeping and when they do nothing more, I peel the shell back to see what is wrong and the chick is formed but bloody and dead. I have never experienced anything like this before. The ones that are hatching, alot of them are weak or spraddle legged.  When the eggs arrived although they were packaged well, some where broken or cracked. I have done this for several years and I do closely monitor temp and humidity. This one has me scratching my head.  I got a bad quality eggs this time around is the only thing that I can think it might be. Any ideas

[Reeves]

If I were you I would thouroughly clean and sterilize the incubator. Then pick up a new thermometer & hygrometer. Use distilled water .

Then try again.

[CharlieHorse]

I have been getting my eggs from a very good source for several years. This year alot of the eggs are not hatching. Some are peeping and when they do nothing more, I peel the shell back to see what is wrong and the chick is formed but bloody and dead.

I am also experiencing this same problem. 

[wvgirl]

If I were you I would thouroughly clean and sterilize the incubator. Then pick up a new thermometer & hygrometer. Use distilled water .

Then try again.

I thoughly cleaned and sterilized my incubators before I started the incubation.Nothing is wrong with anything else. I thoughly checked all of this before I started the incubation of the eggs. Out of 550 eggs, 222 did not hatch. some were rotten, some had partially formed embreyos and some died before hatching. I will be lucky to get 100 chicks out of 550 to make it to adulthood.  thanks for the suggestion appreciate it.

[aKirA]

Now I think about it. I've been experiencing the same thing on a smaller scale.

Last batch of 15 butler giant eggs....6 was fully developed but did not attempt to break out of their shells and died.

And currently have 3 chicken eggs that developed and I was hoping would hatch Tuesday...but nothing. Hard to candle but I don't think they are still alive. I'll give it a day or two then check.

Hmm...Im stumped too. I've done everything as usual and can't think what could be the cause. strange...really strange. Must be Global Warming? hehe

[wvgirl]

I just used the same incubator to hatch out araucanas chicken eggs that someone gave me. 9 out of 12 hatched. 1 was rotten and the others had embreyos that had just started to form but didnot develope. nothing wrong with the incubator.

[Bloomingtongamebirds]

It might be oxygen depletion, some people worry about humidity so much that they shut down the supply of oxygen to raise humidity and the chicks suffocate. When you have 500 eggs incubating,hatching they use alot of oxygen.  It's a balance issue .You said that you hatched  a few chickens and they did fine, might be because they didn't need the same amount of oxygen.