Late death in shell again

[orplady]

Hi,

I would really appreciate some help here as Iam at a loss. I have 8 buff orp hens and 1 cockerell 5 hens are 3 yrs old and 3 are 18 months old, the cockerel is 2 yrs. They are fed breeders pellets and corn and are my pride and joy, Wormed regularly and very well looked after. All season I have been using my Rcom suro and have been hatching my eggs and others that have been bought in, I have had a very good sucsess with the other eggs but very few of my eggs have hatched. The fertillity has been excellent but nearly all have been late death in shell.

I have just finished a hatch today 18 out of 24 were fertile, 4 hatched 2 then died, and I have cracked un hatched eggs and all dead in shell fully formed. I have run the incy dry then just put humididty up to 65 when chipping. I have also tried running at 45 as instructions say. I always sanitize the incy throughly between hatches and clean the eggs with specialised wash.

A few of my hens have has a nasty mycoplasma infection which went with treatment of tylan, but then had a second course as it returned. Could this be a factor? also do you think the flock maybe past thier breeding best? I bought these hens and cock in so cant be definite on age.
Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[daniellesdogs]

iv had a lot of late death in shell but a friend borrowed my inc put a warm damp teatowel in under eggs when stopped turning the eggs and got 23 out of 24 hatch and very quickly. im going to try it as mine will stop turning today see if it works for me. iv marans and pekins in there was going to put in my orps but they stopped laying the week before i turned it on

 

[foxy]

It does seem to point towards a problem with your own stock, particulary if your imported eggs have had a good result, certainly your system for hatching is spot on. King Suros are excellent little incubators, I loved mine and had excellent results by the dry incubation method that you have also used.

So it does point towards either a genetic component or the quality of the eggs, despite the current good health and husbandry of your stock. I don't see the age being an issue specially as you have reasonable fertility rate. I can only assume that the respiratory infection may possibly be a factor, possibly due to an infectious bronchitis. What you could do is add a couple of orpingtons from different stock but try the same cockerel and see what happens.

 

[chrismahon]

We had a problem with our King Suro. Whilst the temperature reads apparently accurately the sensor is in the top centre. So its not actually reading the temperature at the eggs. In the small print it says that the unit must be completely free from draughts and in an ambient temperature of 20 degrees or above -difficult in a Georgian House in March. Our first hatch was two days late. Then I put bubble wrap all over and the next hatch was just a day late. Some of the chicks were weak and were helped out. This is in contrast to our cheap (1/3 price) Spanish semi -auto with a mercury thermometer fitted, polystyrene insulation to the sides and water troughs. All out a day early and really strong birds too. Every bird in that hatch turned out exceptionally well. Because the Suro has no insulation around it the sides in the air get cold, so I will be building a clear sided perspex container to put the whole unit in before it is used again. We also found that the last hatch had dead birds in it because we had not disinfected between hatches because we had 10 in each and a separate hatcher, so the unit was on continuously for 10 weeks and obviously infection built up.

 

[daniellesdogs]

my eggs hatching day early went to hot wet the tea towle again and there are chicks all over the inc but only a third hatched so far

 

[E3lx]

yeah myco could defo be a factor, young chicks are the most affected and it can be passed through the eggs if the oviduct is infected. Myco will never go away, it will remain dormant in their system, till they get stressed, then it raises its ugly head again.
Breeding chickens with myco does usually mean most die in eggshells, because if they are infected, it can kill them young.
2 year old cockerel should not be a problem, i have seen peple hatching with cockerels almost double that age!

 

[daniellesdogs]

i got i think 23 out of 26 one dead in shell 2 died shortly after hatching
best hatching ever