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

[donrae]

"21 days" for a chick is just like "9 months" for a human. Ask any woman who's gone overdue--you just have to wait it out!

 

[Jade86]

Thanks everyone for your help. Im just getting close now to the end of day 22 so I was hoping maybe the first day didnt count lol..
I'm starting to lose a little hope that they are going to hatch now, but i will leave them in there a couple more days and hope for the best. I feel like I have done everything right.
I have a fan forced incubator and have had the temp around 37 - 38 degrees (Thats celsius) and humidity around 50% until day 18 then i bumped it up to 60%. The eggs were only 2 - 4 days old when i put them in.
So i don't know I was very excited to have little babies.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Hi Jade, I had 9 Welsummer eggs who did not hatch until day 23.. I was sure they were dead.. when they all started pipping I couldn't be more surprised! It can happen, so don't give up yet.

Have you heard any chirping? Usually that means there is an internal pip.

 

[Jade86]

Hey thank you for you encouraging reply. I'm still hoping they will hatch at some point.. I have 6 sussex in there and 2 plymouth rocks.
I haven't heard any chirping as yet, well i did hear some on day 20 and I ran over to have a look all excited only to find my 12 week old chickens sitting at the window chirping away lol..

How many days do you think i should let them go over before giving up?

 

[Farmer Viola]

I would probably try candling them in the incubator (at night, in the dark) and look for any movement or internal pips (if you have no pips) by day 23.

if there is no internal pip, and no chirping, then you can do the float test, if you want.

I think I would wait until at least day 24, maybe even 25 before float testing it since the chick can drown if it has pipped internally. the float test will tell you if it's "viable" (developed but dead in shell) or if it is certainly dead (it will sink). it's basically a death test and should be a last resort.

info on the float test at:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

 

[Jade86]

Thank you so much Viola, I will try candling in the incubator tonight..

I will try the float test before i totally give up. Nothing worse if these are just very late hatches and I just throw them away.
Again thanks for all your help, I would have never thought trying to incubate eggs would turn out so stressful!

 

[Jade86]

I just thought i would write here that i candled the eggs and saw no movement then tried the float test today and 3 of the eggs weren't developed and 5 were fully developed but had died Not sure what went wrong.. Maybe opening the incubator on day 19? I feel bad.. I have 3 broody hens now though so i am going to give them a go with some fertile eggs.. Hopefully i will have better luck with them.. One of the cheeky buggers had found a hiding place and was sitting on 30 odd eggs, unfortunately none of those will be fertile but she must really want some babies

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sorry to hear that. Better luck with your broodies.

You might want to look through this link for probable causes.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

I don’t know if those pipped or not, I don’t think they did. Heat or humidity are likely culprits. It might be a good idea to calibrate your instruments so you know what you are dealing with

If they had not pipped, your opening the incubator did not have an effect on them. It was something else.

 

[Jade86]

Thanks for all of your advice.. You guys are great here.

No none of them had pipped. I had the incubator set up near a window and we had a really hot day here and I thought that might have had something to do with it.
Thank you for the link, I will have a read of that

 

[Farmer Viola]

*hugs* I'm so sorry dear, I was hoping they would pull through

check out the dry incubation method, I am having high hatch rates with this method:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-incubate-hatch-eggs-using-the-dry-incubation-method