22 days, no pips, no peeps

[Saraschickens]

Both in an incubator and under a broody hen I've had hatches stretch out into the third day. That's not normal but it can happen. Many of my hatches are over in less than 24 hours of the first one hatching. Some take longer.

Nothing wrong with giving them an extra day if you wish. It will not hurt anything. You had wobblers on Day 18. If you haven't seen a pip by Day 24 I don't think you have much of a chance.

Why did you put them in a bowl with a towel over them? I don't understand that. As they get close to hatch they need to exchange oxygen for carbon monoxide, just like most living animals. Carbon monoxide is heavier than air. Could you have possibly suffocated them by putting them in the bowl?

I let broody hens decide when to bring the chicks off of the nest. I've only once had a hen not hatch at least one chick. That time an egg broke in the nest and caused all of the eggs to get bacteria inside. They stank to high heaven. It was obvious none would hatch.

You're mixing me up with the original writer. I'm just here to learn, lol! I actually just did a batch side by side with an incubator and 6 hens. In my incubator they hatched at day 20 and day 21 (and other than 6 infertile from a friend, and 2 that stopped developing around day 4ish and day 8ish, the remaining 10 all hatched). Under the hens, I got chicks on day, 21, 22 and 1 on day 23 (all placed on the same day, but some hens were "green" and may have gotten off for longer than others. I had another hen with a batch placed 1 week later, and those all hatched on day 20.

 

[Ridgerunner]

You're mixing me up with the original writer.

You are correct, I was confused. Sorry.

There are different reasons eggs can hatch on different days. Heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored before incubation starts, and just basic differences in the eggs can affect that. One big factor is average incubating temperature. If it is low they can be late, if it is high they can be early. So it might be for the entire hatch, it might be for an individual egg.

Each hatch can be different. One incubator hatch I had one chick hatch late on Day 19. Nothing happened (pip or anything) until late on Day, 20, just before I went to bed. Then a couple pipped. When I woke up the next morning an additional 16 had hatched and the hatch was over.

I've had several incubator hatches where all eggs that were going to hatch had hatched 16 hours after the first one. I've had broody hens take their chicks off of the nest less than 24 hours after the first one hatched.

I had one broody hen that hatched a chick late on a Monday night. I don't know when her other chicks hatched but she did not bring them off of the nest until early Friday morning, about 80 hours later. All of the chicks were fine and I did not provide any food or water for them while on the nest.

I generally don't have hard and fast rules where I always do things by a deadline. I try to assess each situation on its own and make a judgment based on what I see. If a broody brings her chicks off of the nest on Day 21, that hatch is over. If she waits until later, I wait. I've only once had a broody hen not hatch a few chicks. An egg broke in the nest and got raw egg on the other eggs. All of the eggs became rotten so it was obvious none would hatch. In an incubator I leave the chicks in until I'm sure the hatch is over, then remove them. Then I open the unhatched eggs to see what happened to them after I take care of the baby chicks.

I can't tell you how I know when the incubator hatch is over. I pay attention to what has happened and at some point based on history I end it.

 

[khayes667]

Welcome to BYC. Can you take a picture of you candling them?


What incubator?
Does it have a fan?
What was the humidity for the first 18 days?

Well I took one out to candle this morning because I had lost all hope and it was MOVING! What do I do now? This is the photo this morning of one of my bantams.

I have a Sailnovo 12 egg incubator. Humidity was around 55-57% during incubation (based on the built in reader) and is steady around 66% during lockdown.

I'm so excited it's still alive but totally clueless as to what to do now. I only candled the one so as not to disturb the process any further

 

[Saraschickens]

You are correct, I was confused. Sorry.

There are different reasons eggs can hatch on different days. Heredity, humidity, how and how long they are stored before incubation starts, and just basic differences in the eggs can affect that. One big factor is average incubating temperature. If it is low they can be late, if it is high they can be early. So it might be for the entire hatch, it might be for an individual egg.

Each hatch can be different. One incubator hatch I had one chick hatch late on Day 19. Nothing happened (pip or anything) until late on Day, 20, just before I went to bed. Then a couple pipped. When I woke up the next morning an additional 16 had hatched and the hatch was over.

I've had several incubator hatches where all eggs that were going to hatch had hatched 16 hours after the first one. I've had broody hens take their chicks off of the nest less than 24 hours after the first one hatched.

I had one broody hen that hatched a chick late on a Monday night. I don't know when her other chicks hatched but she did not bring them off of the nest until early Friday morning, about 80 hours later. All of the chicks were fine and I did not provide any food or water for them while on the nest.

I generally don't have hard and fast rules where I always do things by a deadline. I try to assess each situation on its own and make a judgment based on what I see. If a broody brings her chicks off of the nest on Day 21, that hatch is over. If she waits until later, I wait. I've only once had a broody hen not hatch a few chicks. An egg broke in the nest and got raw egg on the other eggs. All of the eggs became rotten so it was obvious none would hatch. In an incubator I leave the chicks in until I'm sure the hatch is over, then remove them. Then I open the unhatched eggs to see what happened to them after I take care of the baby chicks.

I can't tell you how I know when the incubator hatch is over. I pay attention to what has happened and at some point based on history I end it.

No worries!
Wow! Great information, thank you!!
In the past (17 years ago), I didn't know eggs could be stored before incubating so I would place them under the broody hens as they would lay them. For about a week straight, sometimes longer. Those were the hatches where I learned about age differences and how the biggers would trample the littles...in which case I had to separate and have more brooders. Now a days, I just save the eggs like a normal person so they all hatch at once, lol! But I make sure there's only ever about a week or less difference in a batch, or just plan on multiple brooders. This recent batch was 1 week apart, but the first batch was D'uccles (tiny) and a few silkies, and the second batch was polish and some Barnevelders (for my standard pen), so I knew the littles would end up bigger than the bigs quickly, lol! I'll separate as I go along of course. Those closed the gap nicely with the late hatchers on the first, and the early hatchers on the second.
But in the early day hatches, hatching would go on for days and day because of how I placed them! I know better now. So I would leave eggs for quite a long time (they were labeled) but I also didn't have Google or YouTube for answers. So at the end, I would throw the last eggs in the field in case they popped, and then try to get a closer look... I also never candled. I've learned a lot over the years, but sure find myself always learning something new! In this latest batch under the hens, I left the remaining eggs under the hens until day 25, and when I decided to open them, they were all fully developed (but still had a yolk), I started beating myself up because I thought, "I should have just waited a couple more days"..."I always wait longer, what if they would have hatched?" I saw on Google that at 25 days they're spent. But then I find plenty af "rare" stories where the temps were colder and they hatched as far late as 25, 26... I'm still trying to convince myself that they weren't alive (I didn't see any life), but they were so developed! I guess a young hen just got off too long at the end. The last chick that hatched on day 23 had curled in toes on one side, a bit of splayed leg, and seemed to not see well. I quickly bandaged her legs together (that method is incredible), gave her Save-a-Chick in a syringe, and within about 4 days her splayed legs corrected and somehow the curled toes corrected too, and she can see fine now. But I thought maybe it was from her egg poking out the side and getting cold. I had to tuck eggs for some "green" hens multiple times, they weren't very good about tucking. Thank you again for your information and wisdom. I really appreciate all I can get!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Well I took one out to candle this morning because I had lost all hope and it was MOVING! What do I do now? This is the photo this morning of one of my bantams.

I have a Sailnovo 12 egg incubator. Humidity was around 55-57% during incubation (based on the built in reader) and is steady around 66% during lockdown.

I'm so excited it's still alive but totally clueless as to what to do now. I only candled the one so as not to disturb the process any further

Put it back in the incubator and give it time.

 

[Companihen]

I hatched bantum eggs in March and my hatch started on day 20 and the last 2 hatched day 24. They have all been healthy. The one remaining egg on day 24 started seeping by the end of the day so I threw that away. I didn't open it up