Chicks day 25 and no internal pips! When do I call it?

[kerryb90]

First time chicken hatcher here!

I have a dozen shipped deathlayer chicken hatching eggs in my incubator that are on day 25 as of 4 hours from now and I STILL don't see external pips on any of them. A few have internally pipped (I think) so I gave them a safety hole using a needle. Yesterday I did the float test and 6 of the 12 were moving. When I did that I candled and ALL of them still have veins, so I'm guessing they're all still alive. Is that a fair assumption to make?

I'm using a Little Giant still air incubator that I have successfully hatched ducklings in recently. Temps (98.5 lockdown) and humidity (50-60% mostly, 70-80% lockdown) have been steady throughout incubation. I can't tell if they're peeping because I have ducklings and silkie chicks in the same room, though I could swear that when I lean down towards the incubator I can hear very faint peeping that isn't from either of those (though the window is open so it may be from outside).

I ended up giving 4 of these eggs from this same shipped order to a friend due to lack of incubator space and she hatched one out this morning, so I'm not quite ready to give up hope. But at what point should I?

 

[BGcoop]

Give them time. If you have seen movement and veins they likely just are slow developers.
Maybe candle carefully once/day. I have found that a chick that has died looks different in the shell/ obviously it doesn’t move- but mine (those that never internally pipped at least) have always sort of slid down to the bottom, and stay at the bottom if I rotate the egg.

 

[kerryb90]

Give them time. If you have seen movement and veins they likely just are slow developers.
Maybe candle carefully once/day. I have found that a chick that has died looks different in the shell/ obviously it doesn’t move- but mine (those that never internally pipped at least) have always sort of slid down to the bottom, and stay at the bottom if I rotate the egg.

Thanks for the advice! do the veins stay visible in the chicks of yours that have died in the egg?

 

[BGcoop]

For those that have died before pipping yes I can see them but they are fainter. Mostly I am looking to see if there is any movement though and that is my biggest indicator. I know it is difficult on some eggs to see at this stage so I find it helpful to shine the light through the large end with the air cell. This is where I get the best sense if anything is moving as there is usually a little space right on the edge that I can see. Also if they are pushing against the air cell you can see the edge of that moving or even if they have internally pipped. While your humidity seems “textbook” I have found that ambient room humidity plays a role too. I hatch in my basement where the humidity is higher and so I have switched to mostly dry hatching as I was having chicks hatch late and also drowning at hatch time. My last batch hatched all 5 eggs that made it past day 14 this way. How do your air cells look?

 

[kerryb90]

For those that have died before pipping yes I can see them but they are fainter. Mostly I am looking to see if there is any movement though and that is my biggest indicator. I know it is difficult on some eggs to see at this stage so I find it helpful to shine the light through the large end with the air cell. This is where I get the best sense if anything is moving as there is usually a little space right on the edge that I can see. Also if they are pushing against the air cell you can see the edge of that moving or even if they have internally pipped. While your humidity seems “textbook” I have found that ambient room humidity plays a role too. I hatch in my basement where the humidity is higher and so I have switched to mostly dry hatching as I was having chicks hatch late and also drowning at hatch time. My last batch hatched all 5 eggs that made it past day 14 this way. How do your air cells look?

My incubator room/office is upstairs in a split level and the humidity is about 37% give or take. I just added in a backup hygrometer/thermometer to double check and I believe humidity was lower in the incubator than the Little Giant told me, though the temps were pretty close.

I typically do shine the light on the air cell end at this stage but it's still difficult to detect movement. If they're still alive should they stay still when you rotate the egg? Sometimes I think I can see movement when I turn the egg but it's hard to tell otherwise.

My air cells look fairly big but still less than half the egg in most cases. Some of them are saddled.

 

[BGcoop]

My live eggs do tend to kick around a bit when I rotate the egg- however a dead embryo sometimes appears to move as it slides to the bottom of the egg so it’s a learning g process to distinguish what is normal movement and what is not.
i would still give your eggs more time. Also did you count the day you put them in the incubator as day 1 or day 0? ( it should be day 0. ) maybe these guys are not quite as late as they seem?

This is a good article if you decide you need to try assisting:

https://desireestuff.wordpress.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs-for-beginners/

 

[kerryb90]

My live eggs do tend to kick around a bit when I rotate the egg- however a dead embryo sometimes appears to move as it slides to the bottom of the egg so it’s a learning g process to distinguish what is normal movement and what is not.
i would still give your eggs more time. Also did you count the day you put them in the incubator as day 1 or day 0? ( it should be day 0. ) maybe these guys are not quite as late as they seem?

This is a good article if you decide you need to try assisting:

https://desireestuff.wordpress.com/incubating-and-hatching-eggs-for-beginners/

I'm definitely going to give them more time. I put them in on Friday March 26 at 6pm and counted that as day zero. Lockdown started 4/6 at 6pm. I did that correctly, right? My math skills are not great but I counted several times VERY carefully...

I looked at the assisted hatching guide before to learn about safety holes but I appreciate you linking it nonetheless! I have it open and have looked through it.

 

[BGcoop]

Wait... March 26??? Then they are not due until this weekend!

 

[BGcoop]

Did you mean March 19th?

 

[kerryb90]

Uhhh i might have meant the 19th, I'm not sure. I'll double check. The ducklings were put in a week before them to the day and they hatched fine so I think I meant the 19th. My friend put hers in at the same time and hers hatched out fine so I'm probably mistaken.