How long after day 21 do you go?

[GBov]

Have had a super failure on our last hatch, 15 eggs had one live chick and one dead half hatched. Just wondering when to pull the plug on the batch? Its day 23 now. So upset with this lot of eggs, granted they came out of a VERY cold hen house but they candled just fine and growing right up to lock down and with no heat or humidity issues during incubation we wernt expecting anything less than a great hatch. During lockdown the humidity did go up to 80% for a few hours but I shouldnt have thought that would kill all the eggs?

Never count your chickens eh?

 

[nivtup]

I would take a close look by candling

If they are still viable, you might see some pipped into the aircell, or you can look to see if there is still good veining.

It is possible that temps were off a tad, and that has delayed things.

Reality here is by day 23 we are done, chicks to brooder, unhatched in garbage.


Good luck

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

We have had chicks hatch as late as day 26 and 27. We let ours go to day 28 unless we can confirm that the chicks are not going to hatch.

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Confirm HOW? I candled a few eggs and they are dark with a good air spot. Thats about all I can see. I have read about float testing quail eggs at this late stage but can you do it with chicken eggs?

Its been 3 or 4 years since I last hatched any chicken eggs and its like its all brand new info! SUCH a bad memory

 

[Gypsy07]

Every hatch I've done, nothing happens till day 23. I wouldn't despair completely just yet. And I've never float tested chicken eggs, but it's been mentioned on here loads of times so that's probably a good place for you to start. Candling eggs at day 20+ is a puzzle for me too, all you see is a big dark blob and the air cell. Only once did I see a chick moving in there and it freaked me out so much I could almost have dropped the egg!

 

[ThePamperedPullet]

Quote:
Confirm HOW? I candled a few eggs and they are dark with a good air spot. Thats about all I can see. I have read about float testing quail eggs at this late stage but can you do it with chicken eggs?

Its been 3 or 4 years since I last hatched any chicken eggs and its like its all brand new info! SUCH a bad memory

After about day 23 I will take each egg and hold it to my ear and tap on the shell with my fingernail. If the room is quiet enough, you can hear the chick moving around or even chirp. Those go back into the hatcher. If they do not make noise then I will take an egg and tap on the shell to crack it. Then I take a toothpick and pick out a small speck of shell but not through the membrane. If the chick is alive you should be able to see it move. If it does then it goes back into the hatcher. If no movement is seen then I will continue to chip away the shell. If at any point there is movement detected then I will stop. If still no movement then I will eventually pierce the membrane. If still no movement then I will open the membrane to see at what point the chick died so that I can make adjustments to the hatching process. This is a very risky manuever but one that we find effective. We hatch over 600 chicks a year and have had very good luck with this process and loose very few chicks to cracking them open. It takes care, patience and practice to become comfortable with doing this and not kill a bunch of chicks.

 

[chillmiller]

hmm i go from first hatched then 3 days after that i pull all the hatched and candle the un hatched

but then again candleing dosent always work as just 2 hours ago i candeled an un piped egg and the air cell was over half the egg and no movement/ noise so i threw it out... well the egg cracked open and a LIVE chick fell out!!! sadly its yoke was to lage and un absorbed so it died...

i work on a time line in that i want all the new borns to join the bator at the same time as i have slightly older chicks in there but thats just me

 

[sonjab314]

I wait until day 25. If nothing by them, they go out.

 

[GBov]

Just too my courage in both hands and opened one of the eggs. The chick was fully formed but still had a large yoke in the egg with it. It didnt move or twitch so presumably it was dead. No smell and some of the veins on the yoke sack were brown and a few were still red.

Is it poss. that their very cold start put them back enough in development that my going into lockdown and upping the humidity killed them? The two that did hatch (albeit with one dead before getting all the way out of the shell) could have been laid only min. before they were given to us so never got chilled all the way.

But we went to the feed store and got lonesome chickie some friends so its a bit happier now.