Day 22, no chicks

[Melontine]

Hello
My last hatch of the year doesn't seem to be going as well as I'd hoped. I let one of my hens go broody and sit on a clutch of eggs. I never counted to see how many were in there or candled to make sure they were doing well and that may have been my mistake. I just let her be since I didn't want to disrupt her.
Anyway, yesterday was supposed to be hatch day and I went out today to remove the fake egg I knew she'd taken and was sitting on. I figured if the chicks were hatched or hatching, I should make sure she wasn't still sitting on a dud. I went and found that none of her eggs had even pipped. I removed the fake as well as one egg that seems to have exploded under her, making a mess of the fake egg and 1 or 2 of the real eggs. I think there are still 6-8 eggs under her now.
I'll let her sit the rest of today, but tomorrow will be day 23. Should I candle the eggs tonight or do a water test tomorrow? What are the chances anything will hatch from this batch now?

 

[CindyinSD]

The first time I even heard of the water test was a week or so ago. I think it's probably a good way to kill chicks. I just had my first broody hatch a week ago. I did candle the eggs about halfway through, to make sure they were growing. Other than that I didn't bother her. If a broody is determined though, it's hard to break her by just candling the eggs. I candle whenever I want to, in the incubator. I have several other broody girls right now and none of them object to my candling their eggs. I just do it whenever I feel like I need a peek.

I would candle the eggs tonight. Do you know what to look for--have you done this before? If your broody has been off the nest longer than average, her eggs may hatch a few days late. Also some breeds take a bit longer to hatch. Black Copper Marans are one I've heard of who are like that and I'm sure there are others.

 

[Big Daddy Cliff the Roost]

Hello
My last hatch of the year doesn't seem to be going as well as I'd hoped. I let one of my hens go broody and sit on a clutch of eggs. I never counted to see how many were in there or candled to make sure they were doing well and that may have been my mistake. I just let her be since I didn't want to disrupt her.
Anyway, yesterday was supposed to be hatch day and I went out today to remove the fake egg I knew she'd taken and was sitting on. I figured if the chicks were hatched or hatching, I should make sure she wasn't still sitting on a dud. I went and found that none of her eggs had even pipped. I removed the fake as well as one egg that seems to have exploded under her, making a mess of the fake egg and 1 or 2 of the real eggs. I think there are still 6-8 eggs under her now.
I'll let her sit the rest of today, but tomorrow will be day 23. Should I candle the eggs tonight or do a water test tomorrow? What are the chances anything will hatch from this batch now?

My broody just went 27 days and the eggs hatched! It happened the last time too. When my dad uses an incubator, it takes 21 days on the dot, but each time we hatched au natural, it took a lot longer. Don't do anything. You can candle them, but stay positive!

 

[Melontine]

The first time I even heard of the water test was a week or so ago. I think it's probably a good way to kill chicks. I just had my first broody hatch a week ago. I did candle the eggs about halfway through, to make sure they were growing. Other than that I didn't bother her. If a broody is determined though, it's hard to break her by just candling the eggs. I candle whenever I want to, in the incubator. I have several other broody girls right now and none of them object to my candling their eggs. I just do it whenever I feel like I need a peek.

I would candle the eggs tonight. Do you know what to look for--have you done this before? If your broody has been off the nest longer than average, her eggs may hatch a few days late. Also some breeds take a bit longer to hatch. Black Copper Marans are one I've heard of who are like that and I'm sure there are others.

I haven't had much experience but have candled eggs from my incubator earlier this year. These are buff Orpingtons so the shells are a bit darker and harder to see through.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about the water test either like you're not supposed to rinse off eggs before you incubate but submerging them in water is fine? But I hadn't heard anything bad about it either. I think the best way is to just listen for chirping, usually, there's a lot of that going on by now.
But I'll definitely candle the eggs tonight to see if there are clear eggs or eggs with development. I won't be able to see any veins at this stage but I should still be able to see something I think.

 

[Melontine]

My broody just went 27 days and the eggs hatched! It happened the last time too. When my dad uses an incubator, it takes 21 days on the dot, but each time we hatched au natural, it took a lot longer. Don't do anything. You can candle them, but stay positive!

My first broody hatched just last week at 21 days exactly. So far my limited experience has been just that, but if they're just taking a bit longer than that'd be fine with me. Just so long as they do hatch. I'll still candle them tonight and try to stay positive like you said.

 

[CindyinSD]

Have someone come with you to take some pictures if you can. Especially with eggs nearing hatch time, you need to put the flashlight right up against the air cell. I cover the air cell as best I can, using my flashlight hand, supporting and turning the egg with the other hand. Otherwise the cell is so bright you can't see anything else. With eggs nearing hatch, you should see a huge air cell and the rest of the egg mostly dark.

At the border between light and dark, you should be able to see some variation and hopefully some movement. You may see something dark poking up into the aircell. If so, the chick has nearly or actually broken into the aircell. Hatch should come within a day or two.

If you see dark blobs floating in clearer liquid, the chick has probably died. You can remove it or (as long as it doesn't smell bad) leave it, just in case. If you see fuzzy (not clearly delineated) veins, that's not a good sign, but you should leave the egg. Sometimes things are not as they seem.

At this stage, candling every night is not out of line--but whether or not you do that, be certain to remove any smelly eggs--VERY important.

 

[Melontine]

I went out and tried to candle the eggs, didn't manage to get pictures sadly so I'll try my best to describe what I found.
I removed three out from under her that didn't look good, mostly clear with a loose dark blob or two. I cracked them open before throwing them out to find nothing inside, no signs of a part-way developed chick or even a couple veins.

The other eggs I candled are still questionable. One was too dark to see anything, even the air cell through. Another seemed to have developed alright. Then another seemed to only have something on one side of the egg, maybe that eggs was one that didn't get turned?
Another egg I felt movement and quickly put back under the hen.
Didn't see any pips or hear peeping still but there may be hope for a couple of eggs to hatch.
A lot of the eggs were very porous?

I tried to be quick with my candling and return the eggs under her right away. Not sure if I got them all or not, there were more eggs under her than I thought there were. I'll probably go out again tomorrow night to check how they're doing.

 

[CindyinSD]

The egg that seemed to only have something on one side... that doesn't sound like a live egg. I've seen shipped eggs look that way due to saddled air cells, but for a home-grown egg, that doesn't sound good. I've never heard of non-shipped eggs having that problem. None of mine have.

I'm not sure about the porous eggs. I've noticed that too, especially with the harder eggs like goose and turkey. I wonder whether they don't get like that toward the hatch date so the baby can make its way out? But yes, they do seem to me to get much more dried out and fragile.

 

[Melontine]

Today I threw the rest of the eggs out. Today is day #28 and still no pips or any sign of hatching, so I removed the last four eggs and put the hen back in with the rest of the flock.

 

[CindyinSD]

Sorry it didn't work out this time.