For more information about hatching eggs at home read my articles How to Hatch Chicken Eggs in an Incubator and 15 Helpful Hints for a Successful Hatch.
Reasons for a Poor Hatch Rate
Although hatching baby poultry in an incubator can be a fun and educational experience, sometimes we have a poor hatch. It’s very disappointing to spend 21 days turning eggs, filling the humidity trays and waiting patiently, only to have few, or no, chicks hatch. So how do you know what went wrong?
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Top 5 Reasons for a Poor Hatch Rate
Here are the most common reasons that few, or no, chicks hatch:
- Eggs were infertile, old, or improperly handled before hatch.
- Temperatures were too low, too high, or unstable during hatch.
- Humidity levels were too high or too low.
- Eggs were not turned often enough, resulting in leg deformities.
- Incubator was opened while chicks were hatching.
How Can I Find Out What Went Wrong?
You may never know exactly what caused a hatch to go bad. However, you can do some detective work to get a better understanding of what happened. I usually wait 2-4 days past the expected hatch date before I clean out the incubator. If the temps are slightly low during the hatch, you may have a few chicks that start to pip a couple of days late. Once you are sure that no more eggs are going to hatch, take them outside and break each one open. Don’t do this in the house (just in case any of the eggs are rotten).
- If an egg looks old and runny with no embryo inside, it was most likely infertile, kept too long, or stored at temps that were too warm or cold before incubation, or in the very early stage of incubation.
- If you find embryos that stopped developing at different stages, it’s likely that the temperature in the incubator experienced too many ups and downs, or the humidity trays dried out several times.
- If the chick was fully formed, but never broke through the shell, the humidity or temperature may have dropped too low and the chick died. If the humidity was too high from day 1 - 18, the chick may have drowned during hatch. The albumen (egg white) needs to dry out a certain rate so the air space is large enough for the chick to breathe as it prepares to pip through the shell.
- If the chick pipped through the shell, but didn’t progress past this point, the humidity or temperatures might have dropped too low, or the chick may have had leg deformities or weakness (likely caused by improper turning).
It’s a good idea to candle the eggs every week during incubation. Eggs that never develop an embryo may be removed early in the incubation to prevent rotting and bursting open. Trust me, you don’t want that to happen.
Learning from a Poor Hatch
Hopefully, each time you hatch eggs in an incubator you’ll have better success rates. It can be frustrating to lose chicks and wonder what could have killed them. Here’s a great way to keep track of the hatch conditions and improve…
Take Notes During Incubation
It is also advisable to make notes during the incubation period if anything unusual happens. If the temperature drops or spikes, the humidity trays dry out, or you forget to turn the eggs… make a note of it on your incubation calendar. This will allow you to compare the end of embryo development to the dates that problems were noted. If the eggs were not turned and fully formed chicks were unable to hatch, you’ll have notes about forgetting to turn the eggs properly. Hopefully the next hatch will be more successful after you learn what mistakes were made this time.
Here is a chart of embryo development that is very helpful for determining when the death of an embryo occurred during incubation.
This is by no means a complete list of reasons for an unsuccessful incubation. There can be genetic problems with the embryos, too much humidity early on, and eggs that were jostled before (or during) the hatch, to name just a few.
To reduce problems that cause poor hatch rates, review proper egg care and incubation procedures prior to starting your hatch.
Have you had problems with a hatch? Did you learn how to ensure a better hatch the next time? What is your most common problem with hatching poultry at home?
My son has ran his incubator for two sets of eggs and still hasn’t had an egg hatch this year. He hatched several batches last summer and had 75% hatch rate. He didn’t check the last batch but this time he found that the chicks were all formed in the egg except their guts are outside their body.
Hi Sarah,
This is a common problem when the eggs are not turned properly. The eggs should be turned an odd number of times (at least 3 times) each day to make sure the intestines do not stick to the inside of the shell and the legs form properly as the embryo develops. I hope this helps.
Okay, so I had mixed results - I MUST say, keeping the hatcher closed up really helped. I had on most breeds ( I hatch different Heritage breeds) between 71 and 78 % Hatching rate.
So thank you for the help.
I’m quite perplexed about my Australorps which suddenly dropped to 10% , that while the others maintain percentages of over 70%.
Oh I forgot to say… I do candle the eggs prior to placing them in the hatcher and only fertilsed developed eggs are transferred to the hatcher on day 18
Sorry - typo it should read day 20 not 30#
Should I leave chicks in the hatcher until all eggs have hatched or can I remove them from time to time as they hatch. I hatch different breeds and some start to hatch day 30 while others hatch day 24. The average hatching rate this week was 50%. Some breeds 100% others 33%
Hi Christopher,
I have successfully hatched different species of baby poultry using the following protocol…
- I start the eggs out in one incubator and write the hatch date on the egg with a pencil
- 1 week to 3 days before one species is due to hatch, I move them to a second incubator to hatch
- I do not remove the chicks from the incubator as they hatch… for the best hatch rate you should wait until the eggs that have pipped finish hatching or the humidity and temp will drop, which can kill the rest of the hatching chicks.
Although I have done this in the past, I think that it is really much better if you have a separate incubator for each set of eggs. The less you open the incubator, the better the hatch rate. I hope this helps!
I will follow your advice and keep you posted!
Thank you so much for the reply
hi author.problem in my incubator is worst hatch rate. in first candling you find some germinal disc have dried, again most chicks have leg deformed or intestines out of the abdomen.some others die before comming out of the shells
Hi Gilbert,
In my experience, leg deformities were often caused by the improper turning of eggs during incubation. Weak or deformed legs prevent chicks from hatching properly and they die before they can break free of the shell.
When a chick is born with the intestines outside of the abdomen, this can be caused by the egg being exposed to cold temperatures before incubation or it can be caused by temperatures that are too high during the middle stages of incubation.
Your early losses noted at first candling could also be caused by low storage temperatures before incubation.
I have some other articles on how to incubate eggs that are helpful for your next incubation. I hope this helps.
I’m curious whether anyone is seeing lower hatch rates with the proliferation of WiFi and cell phones. The newer WiFi signals are far stronger and since they cause fertility issues in humans I’m wondering if they will also cause those issues in poultry.
I haven’t noticed any difference in hatch rates.
they will not
I am having problems with the chicks getting out of the egg.The membrane seems to dry out and sticks to the chick.
Hi Anne,
This is a sign that there isn’t enough humidity in the incubator. If you are opening the incubator to check on them, you are letting the humidity out. If not, you need more water in the humidity trays going into the 3 day lock-down period before hatch day. I hope this helps.
dear
i have a automatic incubator controlling 37.7c temp and humidity RH55-65% throughout the 21 days but hatching rate is low 3 hatched out of 13 .what is the possible reason,
Hi,
I’m sorry to hear that. The relative humidity for the last 3 days should be between 70-80%
From the time the egg is laid until the lock down period during the last 3 days of the hatch, the humidity should not fall below 25% and should not go above 60% RH…so that the air sac in the large end of the egg becomes large enough for the chick to get a breath of air before pipping through the shell.
For the last 3 days the humidity should be raised so that the membrane doesn’t dry out and make it difficult for the chick to break through it to hatch.
I hope this helps.
We have had failed hatch with our leghorn chicks on two successive hatches with other breeds doing fine. Eggs are fertile and chicks well developed, looks like late deaths but why the leghorn only? Beautiful looking eggs, any ideas? Alison
Hi Alison,
I’m sorry to hear that your leghorn eggs are failing. That is very odd. If you have had eggs from several other breeds in with the leghorn eggs and they did fine, it makes me wonder if there is a genetic problem with the leghorns. Are they very large eggs? I’ve read that you should go with normal sized eggs rather than very large or small eggs. I’ve also read that chicks that grow larger than usual in the egg have a lower hatch rate, but they didn’t say why.
If the leghorns were in an incubator without eggs from other breeds, perhaps it is a coincidence and there was a problem with the humidity or temp. If they take longer to hatch, and you are removing the other chicks as they hatch, the humidity might have dropped too low, causing the chicks to dry out too much and reducing their ability to work their way out of the egg.
Let me know if you have any other information so I see if anything else comes to mind.