day 22 and not ready? changed to day 23 and all dead. :(

[Ferdinand]

We had 17 Pekin eggs of three varieties in our incubator. On day 19 we had 1 chick hatch and day 20 saw a further 5 hatched one of which died. We have we have 8 eggs left in the incubator and can see the chicks by candling and can hear peeping. How long should we leave them before offering a little help?

 

[Ferdinand]

Any advice?

 

[redonthehead]

I can't say for sure as I'm on day 22 of my very first hatch, but I've heard some people leave them as long as 25 days before doing anything. If you can hear them peeping I would leave them a bit longer... hopefully someone with more experience can help answer this too!

 

[Ferdinand]

The eggs stopped peeping so we took action today (day 23) and all the chicks were dead in the eggs.

 

[redonthehead]

Oh I'm so sorry to hear that! Any idea what may have happened?

 

[Ferdinand]

No idea at all. Humidity was spot on, heat was good and we'd hatched 6 from that batch already.

 

[redonthehead]

Aw, that's too bad. How are the other 6 that hatched? All well I'm assuming?

 

[hencackle]

Are you using a styrofoam incubator? What was your humidity levels for days 1-18? Most likely, your humidity was too high during that period. I suggest you read the Dry Incubation Method article written by Bill Worrell. Dry Incubation

 

[Ferdinand]

The Humidity was spot on through out, The first chicks hatched on day 19 and we lost one within minutes of it hatching the other 5 are fine.

 

[enochabell]

On our first hatch we had 18 eggs and only 9 hatched so getting a 50% out of your count is not bad. I've been told that 75-90 is really good for your first time. We just started our 2nd batch so hopefully we will get all 11 eggs to crack this time. I was also told not to help them until i have more experience. This is alot of fun and I'm looking forward to hatching out my next baby chicks....