22 days under the hen - are they going to hatch?

[Sue Hawley]

My hen went boordy so I got some fertilized eggs for her to sit on. It is day 22 now and they are looking the same as day 1.
I really thought yesterday they would hatch, I'm getting kind of sad now. Any words of advice out there?

New at Chickens.

 

[steffpeck]

Have you candled any of them?

 

[Sue Hawley]

No, I havn't candled the eggs.

 

[steffpeck]

I would candle a couple of them and see if you see anything in them. Let us know what you see.

 

[tropicalchicken]

We went to day 24 and our last one hatched on that day. Ours were really hard to candle, shells were really dark and thick. We ended up with three alive out of 30. My husband did open all the others up and most were just duds, with a couple that made it enough to form some and then died.

If you can't candle wait just a couple more days.

 

[Sue Hawley]

I think I'll just have to wait. Not much point in candeling because I don't know what I'm looking for and I only have the 2 eggs. Also, the hen doesn't really like me right now! I swear I felt a little tap from inside one of the eggs... maybe tomorrow. It has helped me to be able to read thorough other peoples adventures with chckens and hatching while I wait. I can see how addictive the whole thing is.

 

[Sue Hawley]

25 days, it is all over. The eggs were only about 1/3 developed when I broke them to check.
I gave my hen back some golf balls to sit on instead of the dead eggs. If I can find some day-olds maybe I will try her with them. Otherwise it is time for some new hens for the poor lonely rooster. He has been waiting for some action for awhile now.
I am a little bit dissapointed now but honestly. I can't wait to try again.
Thanks for your support.