6 days overdue now what?

[justusnak]

OK, my 2 little eggs are 6 days past due today...what should I do? let them stay? Crack them open? What if I crack them, and there is a live peep in there? Is there a safe way to do this? Maybe start at the air pocket? I just dont know what to do here. UGH! I am terrible at waiting...any ideas??

 

[zimmy]

Maybe you should candle before doing anything else... And THEN decide what's smartest.

 

[cornishman]

6 days is way too long...i know we all want the little peeps but they ain't gonna hatch if they are 6 days overdue. take out all the eggs and start all over again. some of my hatches this year ain't been great...it's still a little early so don't give up. 2 days is the longest that i wait if they ain't hatched yet. some of mine have been 1 to 2 days late this early in the season. some of my hatches have only been 5 or 6 chicks. some have been 9 or 10. the fertilization is lower until may as an old man told me. weather is the key factor. cornishman.

 

[Juliechickens]

Honey, I feel your pain! I'm not over due over here but the stress of not knowing what to do about a problem,,,any problem is enough to exaust me.
When you say 6 days over due , do you mean you are on day 27? I'm no expert here at all but my guess would be to think maybe they didn't make it. Speckledhen or Robin seem to be the most experienced in this department. I would wait for a reply from them before I did anything which is what I'm doing when I post on here. A lot of nice people on here are willing to advise from their own experience and it's most helpful!
Good luck my friend and I'll be watching your posts to see what happens. Wish I could do more for you but I'm having troubles with my own batch too. I have 2 healthy born chicks so far and I'm on day 21. I have one that's been in it's broken egg since yesterday morning who won't come out and I'm on pins and needles waiting to figure out what to do.
Talk with you soon,
Julie

 

[hinkjc]

I would candle first and if you think they look deceased, do a break open analysis and try to determine why and when they died in the shell. If they are really soggy, could have been too much humidity. If they are really small - too low of temps. You can figure out what went wrong and try again by making adjustments. Oh, open them outside in case they are stinkers.

Jody

 

[justusnak]

I have candled them.....all is dark in there...except the air pocket. I dont see any movement,

Guess I will open them, at the air pocket...see whats going on in there. Ohhh sigh...I have 27 more, only on day 6...I dont think I will make it!!!

 

[Juliechickens]

Deb,
Just curious, what type of incubator are you using? How much water did you add and how often? Did your temp remain at 99.5 the whole time? How far developed are the chicks inside? How often did you candle them and when you did , did they seem to be doing well at the time? Did you ever see movement in them?
I'm asking these questions to help educate myself with my own batches of eggs.
I'm so sorry to hear of your loss, I know that is HUGELY disappointing. Now, you must focus on your new batch on the way and try to think what went wrong with this last batch and when it went wrong. There is still hope for the new ones,,,don't give up!
Waiting to hear,
Julie

 

[Arklady]

Hey Deb, I had three failed hatches where none of the chicks hatched at all. I wanted to throw in the towel. I figured it was my bator, 1) location was not up for debate, it had huge variations of tempratures ups and downs. 2) Power outages in which dispite my best efforts they got too cool. So I went to a larger bator. I bought at a huge discount a used Sportsman bator holds up to 240 eggs. I seldom have more than 50 or so in there. But the thing is with the better bator my hatches are more successful. I had been using a Hova bator and I did get one partial hatch out of it but since converting to the Sportsman I have way more successes. I am still only getting, (right now any ways) 50/50% hatch rates at this time of year. Don't get crazy on us here LOL... it happens to the best of us. Plus it is sometimes easier to handle the losses if you hatch out more chicks. I set out 2 doz french marans eggs and 10 hatched... most look to be girls which is great cause that is exactly what I needed. I did want two dozen new chicks, because I need to make sure I have plenty of Marans for a project I am doing. So I set another dozen eggs. But I digress. Don't give up it may be that there are several things that happened to the chick that caused it to die. My number one rule is: Don't watch the bator too closely it drives ya nuts. If you semi-ignore it next think you know they are hatching.

Good luck on the next hatch!

Arklady

 

[justusnak]

Well....I opened them, from the air pocket. The first one was not even formed....UGH..all that waiting and nothing. When I candled it...all was dark, so I thought there was something in there...was just them membrane was dark colored. The second one....which I saw move on day 19....was a fully formed chick...even had the egg tooth. Perished.

It was a home made bator...we had a few power outages, and it cooled to about 90...for a few hours. Im guessing that was the issue. After that...temp stayed about 101....102....and humidity at about 60, till day 18 I upped it to 72 or so. Since this I have gotten a different bator...its older...but seems to hold temps well, and humidity. We are on day 6 with them.I set 27 eggs....just in case they dont all make it. Now, I bet they all do, and I will be OVERWHELMED with babies...UGH! Just my luck! LOL

All I can do now is waite...and walk away from the bator!

 

[mudhen]

Oh, justusnak, I'm so sorry :aww.
I can only imagine how nerve-racking it is to go through all the waiting and then to be so let down.

Best of luck with the next batch, and keep us posted.