Maximum hatchability requires fresh eggs from well-bred and properly managed flocks. However, egg care and incubation is even more critical.
What follows is an analysis of common problems seen during this type of project. Check on the problem for a discussion of the possible causes and how they may be corrected.
Eggs clear - no blood rings, no embryonic development
Eggs candling clear but showing blood ring or very small embryo when broken-out
Early dead embryos during one to six days into incubation
Any considerable 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
Eggs pipped, but chicks dead in shell
Sticky chicks - chicks smeared with egg contents
Dry sticks - shell sticking to chicks
Chicks hatching too early with bloody navels
Large, soft-bodies, mushy chicks dead on trays with bad odor
Short down on chicks or eyelids stuck closed with down
Delayed hatch - eggs not starting to pip until 21st day or later
Malformed chicks in poor hatch, usually associated with an excessive number of chicks dead in shell, with a high incidence of malpositions