I'm not the best at candling yet either, but if you have lots of dark with good air cells, I'd say you should be within a couple of days hatching. Most say give them until day 22 or 23..some even say until day 25.So my broody leghorn hatched four out of seven babies yesterday, day 20. Today, the remaining three eggs remain the same, not a pip on any of them. I'm not the best at candling, but I'd say one is definitely not going to hatch (too much light coming through I think) but the other two are still questionable. Very dark and good air cells, but no movement or chirping that I can see or hear. How long would you give these remaining eggs before tossing them? Is it common for eggs to hatch days apart like this? So happy to have the four regardless. She is doing great with them. Really quite something to witness.
I tend to want to leave eggs as long as I can, but I've had trouble in warm weather with the non-hatching eggs going bad, so watch them if the weather is hot and if you have any signs of smell or oozing. You don't want them exploding yuck all over your new little babies. My last hatch I had to pull on day 22 as I had really bad smell and oozing from some of the unhatched ones. I carefully cracked them in a garbage bag in case I was wrong, but the unhatched eggs were only filled with disgusting green ooze...even the ones that weren't smelling....thankfully no chicks.
Lovely photo of momma and babies. Wow..still amazed. White Leghorn. Who'd 'uv thunk it.
Lady of McCamley
