At what point do I toss eggs that don't hatch?

Mar 18, 2020
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457
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Fredrick County, VA
Hi all,
I know it's still too early since we're only at day 22, but I'd like to know at what point we should call it quits and pull a first-time mom off the nest. She got off to a good start, but still no chicks this morning and on Saturday morning (day 20) she was on the wrong nest when I went in. I have no idea how long she'd been there, her nest was cool (not as cold as the eggs I was collecting from un-tended nests, but WAY cooler than they usually are when she gets up to run for food and water). I grabbed one to candle and she started scolding and jumped back up there. When I candled it, it looked like about day 18-19, I think. The chick part was completely dark but the air pocket didn't seem any larger than usual, I didn't see any indication of beak pushing into the pocket, and certainly no movement or noise from it. I gave it back to her pretty quickly since she seemed distressed and I didn't want to mess up the good thing we have going (she's pretty sweet on me since I bring scrambled egg to her on the nest).
I've been keeping food and water next to her for the last week, since she was looking pretty bedraggled, but she often still comes running with the others in the morning at breakfast.
I know sometimes chicks are late and I'd be happy to have the chicks, but momma's looking a little bleary despite the food and water and I don't want to leave her there to day 28 if chicks "never" hatch after day 23, or whatever.
Thanks in advance!
 
If there are times when she has allowed the eggs to chill, the incubation period may be extended. I'd let her go another couple of days. Candling is a good idea to get an idea of what point the eggs are at.
 
Generally when people as about late eggs hatching it’s because they are using an incubator and you can have chicks hatch late if your temperature or humidity are off. If you are using a broody hen the temperature and humidity should be pretty darn close to perfect so I wouldn’t think you’d have any hatch past day 22 unless she was just a terrible broody at first and then got a whole lot better quickly. Generally bad broodies just don’t hatch chicks at all and good broodies hatch them out right on schedule unless you stick old, stored eggs under her and even then the delay is usually one hour per day of storage and eggs held longer than three weeks (+21 hours) almost never hatch.
 
Generally when people as about late eggs hatching it’s because they are using an incubator and you can have chicks hatch late if your temperature or humidity are off. If you are using a broody hen the temperature and humidity should be pretty darn close to perfect so I wouldn’t think you’d have any hatch past day 22 unless she was just a terrible broody at first and then got a whole lot better quickly. Generally bad broodies just don’t hatch chicks at all and good broodies hatch them out right on schedule unless you stick old, stored eggs under her and even then the delay is usually one hour per day of storage and eggs held longer than three weeks (+21 hours) almost never hatch.
So you're thinking I should pull them tomorrow (day 23)? Maybe I'll split the difference between that and the other advice, pull and candle them on Wednesday.
Crossing my fingers for her to just hatch them all today...
One more question about counting the days- she was on and off, on and off for several days, so we set several ceramics in her nest and she settled right in. We replaced them with real eggs (from what we'd gathered that day and the day before) on September 20, so I'm counting the 21st as day 1, 22nd as day 2, etc. Is that right or should day 1 be when I first placed them? In that case, we'd now be day 23.
 

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