Day 22 and no pips

[Kabindramagar]

Hello,
So Im currently incubating 9 Frizzle chicken eggs and today is day 22. I was told frizzle chicks hatch in 21 days but saw no pipping at the end of day 21. Today is the end of day 22 and 2 eggs have pipped but the others have not.

The chick fromm one of the pipped egg was chirping for a second and has been quite since and im a bit worried.

Is it normal for chicks to hatch post 21 days? And its end of day 22 and 7 havent pipped only 2 has.

Its currently winter here and gets cold at night but the incubator temperature is maintained between 37.5-38.5 and Ive had power outages for 2-3 hrs for around 7 days. So maybe thats the reason for late and slow development??

And how many days should I wait before opening the incubator to aasist??

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bonkerelli]

Hello,
Assuming the 37.5-38.5 is celcius correct? It is not unusual for chicks to hatch later. Temperature and humidity level will effect the hatching. Since you had some power outages temperature inside the incubator most likely dropped. I would wait 28 days before you take any action.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did you count the days right, that's a real common mistake on here? Intuitively you want to say "one" when you put the egg in the incubator but that is not right. It takes 24 hours for an egg to have one day's worth of incubation so you say "one" the next day. An easy way to check your counting is the day of the week you start them is the day of the week the 21 days are up. If you put them in the incubator on a Monday, the 21 days are up on a Monday.

Is it normal for chicks to hatch post 21 days?

Absolutely. The 21 day thing is just a general target. Either in an incubator or under a broody hen it is not that unusual for eggs to hatch a couple of days early or late. There are several different tings that can affect when an egg hatches. Heredity, humidity, how and how long the egg was stored can play a part. A big factor is average incubating temperature. If the average incubating temperature is warm the egg can be early, cool and it can be late. Did you calibrate the thermometer or thermostat to confirm it is accurate. I never trust any thermometer or the factory settings until I know they are calibrated.

I calibrated my incubator so I know it is right. I still often get chicks two full days before the 21 days are up. The same thing often happens under broody hen so I trust my calibration was right. I think my problem is due to heredity to a very large extent. Some people on here regularly get late hatches like that. The record I've heard from someone I trust to count the days right was on Day 25.

Its currently winter here and gets cold at night but the incubator temperature is maintained between 37.5-38.5 and Ive had power outages for 2-3 hrs for around 7 days. So maybe thats the reason for late and slow development??

The center of that egg is pretty dense. It takes a pretty good while for air temperature to affect the temperature in the middle of that egg. That's the important temperature, in the middle. Unless it were in some bitterly cold place, really cold, the embryo wouldn't even know the air temperature had dropped in three hours. No, that power outage didn't have anything to do with slowing down the development of the embryo.

And how many days should I wait before opening the incubator to aasist??

I don't have a good answer to that. It's not an easy question. A lot of eggs that aren't strong enough to hatch on their own are not strong enough to live. There is a reason they aren't hatching. If the chick has not developed enough you can kill it by trying to help. Sometimes a chick is stuck and you can save it by helping. I generally put off helping as long as I feel that I can but I have helped a few that survived and did well. With me it's more of a feeling than anything else.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Please don't help, I have had eggs hatch day 23, and even if they pip, they still need to sit in an egg up to 12-24 hrs. They get first breaths then rest, and absorb egg contents. Then they will finish hatching.

 

[Kabindramagar]

T

Hello,
Assuming the 37.5-38.5 is celcius correct? It is not unusual for chicks to hatch later. Temperature and humidity level will effect the hatching. Since you had some power outages temperature inside the incubator most likely dropped. I would wait 28 days before

Hello,
Assuming the 37.5-38.5 is celcius correct? It is not unusual for chicks to hatch later. Temperature and humidity level will effect the hatching. Since you had some power outages temperature inside the incubator most likely dropped. I would wait 28 days before you take any action.

Thank You!!
Today is day 23 and will wait for another 5 days!

 

[Kabindramagar]

Did you count the days right, that's a real common mistake on here? Intuitively you want to say "one" when you put the egg in the incubator but that is not right. It takes 24 hours for an egg to have one day's worth of incubation so you say "one" the next day. An easy way to check your counting is the day of the week you start them is the day of the week the 21 days are up. If you put them in the incubator on a Monday, the 21 days are up on a Monday.


Absolutely. The 21 day thing is just a general target. Either in an incubator or under a broody hen it is not that unusual for eggs to hatch a couple of days early or late. There are several different tings that can affect when an egg hatches. Heredity, humidity, how and how long the egg was stored can play a part. A big factor is average incubating temperature. If the average incubating temperature is warm the egg can be early, cool and it can be late. Did you calibrate the thermometer or thermostat to confirm it is accurate. I never trust any thermometer or the factory settings until I know they are calibrated.

I calibrated my incubator so I know it is right. I still often get chicks two full days before the 21 days are up. The same thing often happens under broody hen so I trust my calibration was right. I think my problem is due to heredity to a very large extent. Some people on here regularly get late hatches like that. The record I've heard from someone I trust to count the days right was on Day 25.


The center of that egg is pretty dense. It takes a pretty good while for air temperature to affect the temperature in the middle of that egg. That's the important temperature, in the middle. Unless it were in some bitterly cold place, really cold, the embryo wouldn't even know the air temperature had dropped in three hours. No, that power outage didn't have anything to do with slowing down the development of the embryo.


I don't have a good answer to that. It's not an easy question. A lot of eggs that aren't strong enough to hatch on their own are not strong enough to live. There is a reason they aren't hatching. If the chick has not developed enough you can kill it by trying to help. Sometimes a chick is stuck and you can save it by helping. I generally put off helping as long as I feel that I can but I have helped a few that survived and did well. With me it's more of a feeling than anything else.

Thats a lot of information! & thank you.

Yes I did my counting right. I counted day 1 from the next day.

Will wait for another 5 more days before I do something.
Thanks again

 

[Kabindramagar]

Please don't help, I have had eggs hatch day 23, and even if they pip, they still need to sit in an egg up to 12-24 hrs. They get first breaths then rest, and absorb egg contents. Then they will finish hatching.

Im not gonna help right now.
But should I if the pipping dosent progress further after 24hrs?

Thanks

 

[Kiki]

I would open the incubator today and candle each egg in a dark room to see if they are indeed internally pipped or not.


I open my incubator numerous times during the last 3 days of incubation and I have never had an issue caused by opening my incubator.

 

[Kabindramagar]

I would open the incubator today and candle each egg in a dark room to see if they are indeed internally pipped or not.


I open my incubator numerous times during the last 3 days of incubation and I have never had an issue caused by opening my incubator.

So 2 of em hatched. Candled the rest and all seems like they are dead. No internal pip nor movements. Their aircell is very big! Humidity was at 60% .

 

[Kabindramagar]

Update : 2 out of 9 eggs hatched.
3 more pipped but they pipped at the pointy end downwards! Checked today morning and realised they all pipped the wrong end and was dead facing the floor

Out of the two hatching one is very energetic and the other is still asleep and its yolk sack is still intact unabsorbed. This chick is also very small compared to the other hatched one. Will this survive?? No its not an assisted hatch. Both hatched on their own. But one jus hatched before absorbing the yolk and is asleep.