Breaking unhatched eggs

[cowman1970]

I have a dilemma here. I had about 42 eggs in a still air incubator. All are at least 30 days old. I have it all written down. I've broken apart at least 15 with 5 that were still alive. The yolk was about the size of a dime which leads me to believe they were still developing. The dead ones were the same or term and not hatched. If the incubation period is 26-28 days then what is going on? How long should I let these go before I discard them all? I was able to hatch 6 live ones since last week. Do any of the Guinea breeds have a long gestation than 28 days? I have two pied, 5 classic colored, and one white.

 

[chickenlovefever]

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

You didn't BREAK OPEN any eggs that weren't already cracked, did you?????!!!
You shouldn't ever, ever crack open an egg in an incubator. It's different when you have a chick pipping, and he has been pipping for a while now and you break apart a bit of his shell so he can get out easily. You should leave eggs that you are not sure of in the incubator at LEAST 5 days after their due date. and Al i can else say, is candle, candle, candle the eggs to check every day for development. You could have just killed 10 chicks. Some are late developers, and they take a slower ammount of time, and it could be because of the temperature. the lower the temp, the slower developement, and the higher the temp, the fast growth is and the more likely the chick will die. But about 5 days before a chick hatches, all of the yolk finishes absorbing into the stomach.
I think you should just leave the rest in there, and candle them to look for any sign of developement. If you see like an itty bitty chick, anything smaller than a quarter, you should throw it out, because it would be a quitter.

 

[PeepsCA]

Hmm... What temp did you incubate the eggs at? 30 days for a hatch is very uncommon, (with my hatches anyway, 26-27 days is the norm). Helmeted Guinea Fowl eggs that are incubated correctly and meant to hatch (via Mother Nature's choice), usually do fine on their own... so I am guessing something wasn't right with your incubation conditions.

5 days is a little excessive to go past the hatch date, and IMO if any more hatch they will likely have deformities, leg/feet issues or genetic disorders. Hope this isn't the case with your hatch.

The remaining yolk is absorbed just prior to hatching. As the keet pips internally it's body is stimulated to absorb the rest of the yolk AND the blood supply from the membrane. It can take up to 48 hours, but I have never experienced any hatches that are 5 days late.

 

[jcatblum]

I will crack a few before I toss them, just to make sure I did candle correctly. (which if I am reading correctly that is what you were doing) However I don't assit in hatching even if they have pipped. I feel if they were not strong enough to get through the shell then they are not going to be a strong chick or keet. I used to want to save every egg, but have come to realize eggs are plentiful (if the snakes don't get them first). I personally have had eggs hatch 2 days late but never any later. Even this am i woke to a keet that was late. I tossed the rest this afternoon
If I have a large batch of late eggs I will wait longer before I toss, because I start to think maybe there wasn't a constant temp & began second guessing things!