Incubation Troubleshooting
Following are some of the more common incubation troubleshooting issues. Click on the symptom to view possible causes and corrective measures.
- Eggs clear, no blood rings, no embryonic
development
- Eggs candling clear, but showing blood ring
or very small embryo on breaking. Embryos dead mainly from the first
through fourth days of incubation, although some may have developed through
sixth or seventh day.
- Many dead germs.
- A number of embryos dead from the sixth through
the sixteenth days of incubation. Normally this is a period of relatively
low embryonic death.
- Chicks fully formed, but dead without pipping.
May have considerable quantities of unabsorbed yolk (18-21 days of incubation).
- Eggs pipped, but chicks dead in shell. Hole
made in shell, but embryo failed to pip further. Embryo may still be alive.
- Eggs pipped part way, embryos either dead or
still alive.
- Sticky chicks - chicks smeared with egg contents.
- Dry sticks - shell sticking to chicks.
- Chicks hatching too early with bloody navels
- Rough, congested or poorly healed navels
- Chicks too small
- Large, soft-bodied mushy chicks dead on trays
with bad odor
- Weak chicks
- Short down on chicks, or eyes with down
- Delayed hatch - eggs not started to pip
until day 21 or later
- Draggy hatch - some chicks early, but hatch
slow in finishing. (Frequently associated with 19, 20 or 21-day embryos
still in the shell with excessive unabsorbed yolk. All yolk must be absorbed
by end of day 20.
- Malformed chicks in poor hatch, usually
associated with an excessive number of chicks dead in the shell, with
a high incidence of malpositions.
- Special cases of crippled and malformed chicks.
- Exploders - Problem usually occurs at about
12 to 13 days of incubation.
- "Runts" in the growing birds (usually detected by three to four weeks of age or older).
