Been 4 weeks, still NO chicks??

purplefox

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Hello!! I have Bantams - 3 hens and 5 roosters. One hen started sitting almost 4 weeks ago. I've been listening for pecking sounds in the eggs, but haven't heard anything. What should I do?? I'd hate to open up an egg and find the chick isn't ready to come out!! I'm lost.......
 
It should only be approx 19-22 days for chicken to hatch. If older than 25 days, the eggs won't hatch for sure. Part of the reason can be no fertiled (no mating, hen too old or rooster too old), wrong setting (over heat in summer, or naked hen cannot cover enough, or just poor method of covering the eggs from a hen). If none hatched then maybe the eggs are not fertiled, my best guess. Take a look at the nest to see if eggs are still in there; sometimes rodents, snakes, varmints took the eggs and the hen still tries to set.

For old/overdue eggs, you need to throw the eggs away before they popped by themselves with stinky smell. Before you throw them away, you may double check to see if any baby inside. This is very easy. Take them inside your restroom at night, with the light off, use a flash light placed at 1 side of the egg and you observing the egg from the other side. Clear color means no chick. And big black cloud means .. baby. With the one with baby inside, you may want to put back in the nest for a couple extra days of setting.

Good luck.
 
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Thanx to all who responded. Everyone told me to dump the eggs. I took them out and they said to break them to see if there were any babies formed. Well, I did. One egg was not formed. The other had a tiny wee-lit'l chick. It was barely breathing. It died of course. My grand-daughter and I cried and cried. We had a prayer and burial while we cried. I will never listen to any of my guy-friends around here again!! I can't tell you how terribly awful I feel. I will be crying myself to sleep tonite fer sure.
I did return all the rest of the eggs to the hen. (Tuffy). I really think that the chick was far too small for the amount of time she's sat. Even if it was the last egg, the baby was so very tiny. There was a lot of the yolk sac still in the egg. It was 4 weeks today she started sitting. I know there's a slight chance of more hatching, but I will be surprised if we have any hatch. Tuffy is a 1st time mom. I've noticed that she doesn't always cover all the eggs. Some are pretty cold to the touch. This is just a sad day for us.
Time for some sleep. Again, thanx to all who answered.

Chris*
 

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