almost the end of day 21 and nothing from the eggs?

[Jade86]

Hey this is my first time incubating eggs so im very anxious and concerned at this point. I've been reading that a lot of chicks pip at day 19 or 20 and hatch by day 21.

On day 19 I saw 3 eggs rocking but then i read that you aren't suppose to open the incubator after day 18 so I can't really tell now if they have been moving or not. I can see the eggs in there but its very hard to see. Should something have happened by now?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Give them a few more days and as i see it your not suppose to open it up if an egg is pipped. As if ones pipped and you open it it can get shrink wrapped. Never had that happen to me.

 

[Jade86]

Thank you, I will give it a few more days, fingers crossed!
so it is ok to quickly open it to have a peek if none have pipped?

 

[Kyzmette]

They can go up to 25 days. Check the links here to get some really great info.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...hing-eggs-important-topic-index-please-review

 

[chickydee64]

Thank you, I will give it a few more days, fingers crossed!
so it is ok to quickly open it to have a peek if none have pipped?

HI,
Don't worry yet......sometimes it is 22 , 23 days..............
I like to remember, they do not read the book............

I always leave my eggs until day 25.sometimes have stragglers.........

When you open the incubator............it can affect the humidity in just seconds...............
Losing the humidity can cause the membrane to tighten around the chick so it cannot hatch...............
Most of us advise.don't open the incubator.............even if chicks have hatched and there are more eggs.
Chicks can go without food or water for three days...........

With a hen, this three day period gives her time to hatch all the chicks...............
Good Luck. I know it is hard to wait.. That is when my house gets really clean........

 

[Jade86]

Thank you for the link Kyzmette I'll give that a read.

And thank you chickydee I will just leave the incubator shut up, no need to open it really.. hopefully I didn't do any damage by opening it on day 19.
Lol Keeping myself busy cleaning sounds like a good idea. Saves me looking at the incubator every 10 minutes seeing if anything has changed.

 

[Jade86]

I just had a quick question on counting days. Do you count the first 24 hours in incubator as day 1 or 0? If that makes any sense lol

 

[Kyzmette]

I count from the day I put them in the incubator. The thing that caught me by surprise about incubating eggs, though, is that chickens are kind of like cookies. They're chookies. If your incubator is set a little low, it can actually take a little longer to bake them. Of course, if it's set too low for too long, you'll lose the eggs, or if they do hatch, they'll have health issues, but if your temps drop a little or if the incubator temp bottoms out then is slow to warm up after they're started, the reduced temp can add additional time to the baking process. Baking chookies can take a little longer if the oven doesn't maintain a consistent baking temperature.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

I read if you put them in say morning its considered day one if you put them in the evening you count the next day as 1 and i open my bators allot never had any shrink wrapped everyone is different though.

 

[Ridgerunner]

An egg does not have a day’s worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after you put it in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day’s worth of development. Instead of thinking Day 1 or Day 18, I like to think of it as days of development. It’s just easier for me that way. An easy way to check your counting is that the day of the week you put them in is the day of the week they should hatch. If you start them Tuesday, they should hatch on a Tuesday.

That’s only theory though. Reality trumps theory every time in this. Like Kyzmette said, the average incubating temperature can have a big effect. If the average incubating temperature is a little high they can be early. If the average incubating temperature is low they can be late. But there are a lot of other things that affect that too, like heredity, humidity, and how and how long they are stored before you start them. There are just some basic differences in the eggs. Some egg whites are more watery than others. Those tend to take a little longer. Smaller eggs tend to hatch a little earlier than larger eggs.

All this is why a hatch may drag on for two or even three days. Most of my hatches are over within 18 hours of the first one hatching, but I’ve had some hatches drag out more than 48 hours. I’ve had eggs hatch more than 2 full days early in an incubator and under a broody, all within a few hours of each other. I’ve had eggs hatch on time in an incubator or under a broody. They are not consistent and each hatch is unique. It’s nice when they all hatch about on time and within a few hours of each other, but reality is not always nice.

There is often a big difference in things that might can possibly happen and something that will absolutely happen each and every 100% of the time without fail. Shrink-wrapping a chick by opening the incubator after an egg has pipped is one of those. In an egg has not pipped it is not a big deal, but if an egg has pipped it is possible you can shrink-wrap the chick. I’ve done that myself. But I’ve also opened the incubator and not shrink-wrapped a lot of chicks that had already pipped. I understand there is a risk if I open the incubator, but sometime something happens that it’s worth the risk to open it.