A dead-in-shell egg has already told you something about the days before it was set, so sort the tray before you bin it.
Halaal Farms Ghana team30 July 2026 · 12 min read
The debrief starts the morning after the hatch, once the trays have stopped moving and the chicks are in their boxes. What is left on the tray is a row of eggs that did not produce a chick. Most growers tip them into a bucket and forget them. That is a waste, because each one has already told you something about the days before it was set, the machine it sat in and the flock it came from.
This article explains how we read dead-in-shell eggs at Halaal Farms in Opeikuma, Kasoa. It covers how to sort them by stage, how to match what you see to the usual causes, and how to change one thing at a time so you can tell whether the change helped. It also covers the safety side, because a dead egg that has been sitting in heat is not something to handle carelessly.
A dead-in-shell egg is one where the embryo began to develop and then stopped before the chick got out. That is different from an infertile egg, where nothing much started. The two look alike from the outside and they have different causes, so the first job is to separate them.
The embryo can die at any point in the 21 days it spends in the incubator at about 37.5°C. Early deaths happen in the first week, when the embryo is small and the machine's conditions matter most. Mid-stage deaths come after that, and late deaths happen in the final days, when the chick is almost fully formed and getting ready to hatch. A chick that has broken through the membrane but could not zip itself out of the shell is a separate case again, and it is often the most frustrating one to find.
Infertile eggs are a different problem. If an egg shows no sign of development at all, the question is about the breeder flock, the age and feed of the birds, the balance of cocks and hens, and how the eggs were stored before they went into the machine. We come back to that below.
Before you decide what went wrong, sort the eggs. The sorting itself is the most useful part of the debrief, and it needs nothing more than trays, a torch or candler, a clean table and a notebook.
Lay the eggs out in rows so you can see which tray and which position each one came from, because position in the machine sometimes tells you something. Candle the eggs to check for clear eggs and early deaths. Then open the rest carefully. Put on gloves before you touch anything that smells off, and open each egg over a cup or bowl, not over the tray. A rotten egg carries a heavy load of bacteria, and the smell alone tells you to keep your face clear of it.
Count as you go. Keep a simple tally with columns for infertile, early dead, mid dead, late dead, pipped but not hatched, and total set. Write the tally down before you start thinking about causes. It is easy to see a pattern that is not there when you have already decided what the answer is.
Dispose of the opened eggs in a closed bin, away from the hatch room, and keep the dogs and the children away from the bin. Wash your hands and your gloves when you finish. Do not put eggs with cracked or broken shells back into the feed or scatter them for the chickens.
The table below matches each stage to what you will see when you open the egg, the causes that are worth checking first, and the records to look at on the farm. These are the usual suspects, not a verdict. The only way to confirm a cause is to change one thing and see what the next hatch does.
| Stage | What you see when you open it | Causes worth checking first | What to look at on the farm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infertile or clear | No sign of development at all | Breeder flock age and feed, the balance of cocks and hens, how the eggs were stored before setting | The breeder flock records, egg storage conditions, handling of the eggs |
| Early dead (first week) | A small embryo or a dark ring, stopped early | Temperature swings in the first days, poor turning, eggs kept too long or too hot before setting, breeder disease | Machine temperature records, storage room conditions, flock health |
| Mid dead | A partly formed embryo, sometimes with blood in the fluid | Temperature or humidity out of range, ventilation problems, a power cut during the middle of the run | Machine readings across the run, power history, the hatch log |
| Late dead (final days) | A fully formed chick, dead before or during pipping | Humidity and ventilation in the last days, weak chicks from the start, disease in the flock | Last-days humidity, how often the machine was opened, the flock's health |
| Pipped but not hatched | The chick broke the membrane but did not get out | Membranes drying out in the last days, humidity too low at the end, the machine opened too often | Last-days humidity readings, door openings, the time spent in the machine |
One dead egg tells you almost nothing. A tray of them, or a pattern across the whole set, tells you a lot. Look at where the deaths cluster.
If most of the deaths sit in one stage, that stage points to one part of the process. Early deaths point back to the eggs and the first days in the machine. Late deaths point forward, to the final humidity, the ventilation and the chick itself. If the deaths are spread across every stage, suspect something that touches the whole set, such as the flock the eggs came from, the storage room or the machine in general.
Also look at the position in the machine. If the eggs at one end of a tray or near the door die more often than the rest, the cabinet itself may be uneven. Check the thermometer in each corner against a second thermometer before you blame the eggs.
Be careful with a single bad hatch. It is a fact, not a diagnosis. Put it next to the last three or four hatches before you change anything, because one run can be unlucky. A pattern that repeats over several hatches is worth acting on.
Several things that are specific to Ghana show up in the debrief, and they are easy to miss if you only look at the machine.
Eggs that travel before they are set can lose quality on the road. A breeder flock in one region and a hatch room in another means eggs spend hours in a bus or a van, often in the heat. Ask how the eggs were carried and stored before they arrived, and write the answer in the log. Eggs that sat in a hot room for days before setting often show up as early deaths.
The harmattan changes the air in the last days of a run. Dry air draws moisture out of the eggs, and a chick that is short of moisture at the end can fail to pip or fail to get out. During those months, check the humidity more often in the final days and do not let the machine dry out.
Rainy-season air is the opposite problem. High humidity in the room can make it harder to hold the right conditions inside the machine, and poor airflow leaves the last-days chicks short of oxygen. Watch the ventilation as much as the readings.
Power cuts show up in the debrief as mid-stage deaths more often than anything else. If the machine was off for part of a run, the log will tell you when, and the timing matters. A cut in the first week hurts differently from a cut in the final days. We cover how to plan for that in our guide to power cuts, which applies to the brooder but follows the same logic.
The most common mistake after a poor hatch is changing five things at once. The next hatch looks better, or worse, and nobody knows why. Change one thing, record it, and compare the next run against the last few.
This takes patience, and it is the reason the debrief is worth doing properly. A grower who writes down what changed can tell in three hatches whether it helped. A grower who changed everything can only hope.
Our incubators hatch under 5,000 chicks a week, and every hatch goes through the same sorting, counting and boxing before the chicks leave the farm. Our own debrief follows the steps in this article: sort first, record the tally, look for the pattern, then change one thing at a time. We do not publish hatch percentages on this blog, because a figure from one run tells you little about another. What we can tell you is that we keep the records, and we would rather explain a bad run to a buyer with numbers than guess at it.
If you are buying chicks from us and you want to understand a bad batch, bring the tally and the log. We will go through it with you and tell you what we see. Chicks that arrive dead are replaced free in the next hatch, so the record matters on both sides.
The format of the record matters less than doing it every time. An exercise book works. A simple spreadsheet works better if you can use one. What matters is that each setting has a line for the date, the source and age of the eggs, how long they were stored and at what temperature, the machine readings you took, the number of turns if you turn by hand, any power cut, and the final tally by stage.
Add a line for notes. Write down the smell of the eggs when they were opened, whether the room was unusually dusty or damp, and anything the team noticed that did not fit the numbers. Those notes are often where the answer is hiding, and they are the first thing you forget a month later.
No. The machine is one suspect among several. Breeder flock health, egg storage before setting, transport and the eggs themselves all matter. Sort the eggs and read the pattern before you blame the equipment.
Keep the tally, then dispose of the eggs safely in a closed bin. Opened eggs carry bacteria, so handle them with gloves and keep them away from children, dogs and the feed store. Do not reuse them.
Three or four is a sensible minimum. One run can be unlucky, and a pattern across several runs is much easier to act on than a single bad tray.
That usually points to the last days of the run, especially humidity, the membranes drying out and how often the machine was opened. Check those readings first, then compare them with your log from the hatches that went well.
Once your records show a pattern you can act on, the next step is a clean run with good chicks. An order starts with a message, not with money. Send the order form on our site or call 024 915 1503, and we confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost before you pay. You can pay by cash, mobile money or bank transfer. Chicks that arrive dead are replaced free in the next hatch, and the minimum order is one box of 50.
Before you order, you may want to read our guide to salmonella and hatchery hygiene, check the current prices, or look at how to order day-old chicks step by step. If the tally points to flock health, our guide to chronic respiratory disease is a useful next read.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
A weekly weighing routine for broiler farmers: how to pick an honest sample, the weights to compare against from day 7 to day 42, the average and uniformity sums, and what to do when the flock is behind.
Feed cost per kilo of broiler depends on how much feed each kilo takes and what you pay for it. These ten habits lower both without starving the birds or buying additives.
Heat kills the heaviest broilers in the last days before sale. This guide explains why, shows the signs in order, and sets out the house, stocking, water and feeding changes that prevent it, plus an afternoon emergency plan.
