Day 22 now, still moving but not hatching....?? HELP!!

[Gspeed31]

Hi, i'm new to this forum. We have had chickens for about 3 years now but this is our first time incubating chicks. We have done everything according to the instructions, saw them moving when candled and haven't touched them since say 18. Day 21 the eggs were wobbling around but we haven't seen any pipping or heard any peeping at all yet. Tonight will be 22 days and i'm getting worried that something is wrong. Temp has been maintained at 100 degrees, except for a couple hours where it went to 102 but they were all fine and moving around inside the shells days after that happened. There is no humidity meter on this incubator but the guy that lent it to us has had several successful hatches with just using a bowl of water in it. I added an extra cup of water for the hatch and there is no visible signs of too much humidity (ie: beading of water/condensation on the windows....) What should we do, my husband wants to try to crack the eggs but I think we should wait until at leat 23 days.... will that be too late if they don't get out by then? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!! Thanks

 

[furbabymum]

My eggs took longer than 21 days. It was my first incubation experience as well. I think the first one hatched at 24 days and 2 more on day 25.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Some chicks just take longer... and some hatch before the 21 day mark.

 

[nettifer]

i had 2 hatch on day 24 & 1 on day 25 two with help

but i lost the other 7, but 3 doing great x

 

[Gspeed31]

Thanks for the replies! By "help", what do you mean? Were they starting to try to get out or was there nothing happening and you cracked the egg? Or put a hole in the air sac area? That's what I read in another post but we're afraid to try it. I guess we'll give them to day 24 as long as we still see movement before trying to get them out. We only did 6, 3 of them are moving, the other 3 never did anything but did look developed on day 18, the last day I candled them. Thanks! I'll repost with an outcome, hopefully at least the 3 that are moving will make it!

 

[nettifer]

we helped 1 that had pipped on day 23 it didnt get any bigger 20hrs later, so we took most of the shell off and it got out of it by itself, day 24 1 pipped at 9pm and unzipped and out at 11pm

, then on day 25 another pipped but was clearly struggling! so we helped again

but all 3 are doing well and are 8 & 9 days old

i waited until day 28 and opened the remaining 7 eggs! 2 were yolks, 1 had a 1wk old chick in, 2 had 2x2wk old chicks in & 2 had fully developed chicks in that had absorbed their yolk sacks but didnt even pip

i was devastated we had a wild duck egg in with them that stayed another wk, was movong up to 2 days ago! then stopped opened last night again fully developed but hadnt absorbed the yolk!

how are yours doing? hope you have a happy ending

 

[randerson846]

I recently hatched chicks and mine pipped. On the 23rd day so theres still hope but don't help them out only if really needed, i tried to help mine as it was struggling to get out and it ended up that the poor chick died.
Hope it works for u good luck

 

[cindy Lopez]

I have 22 eggs in incubation and nothing yet is that bad

 

[KKs Kandies]

maybe someone can help? I'm tired of throwing out perfectly good dark Marans eggs because they never hatched. I have some poor quality light brown Marans whose eggs hatch just fine! All eggs come from the same breeding garden and are fathered by the same roo. Any ideas?
I set 6 to 12 dark Marans eggs in the incubators along with my light Marans eggs and Ameracauna, EE's Blue Lace Wyandotte's , etc., follow the dry hatch method, read all I could find here and still no hatch! Tonight I can hear one out of six of the dark Marans eggs still pipping, it's been trying all day, but still nothing. Several of the others have already hatched and the chicks are strong and doing well. I'm feeling desparate, and sad to think I will continue to lose the chicks in their dark eggs. If not for the dark eggs I could have boasted several times of a 100% hatch rate so I must be doing something right for all of the other eggs. Open to any ideas you may have. Thanks in advance.

 

[KKs Kandies]

ha! should have said... poor quality marans with light brown eggs NOT light brown marans! oops!