Day 24 float test should i help

[WVduckchick]

I didn't read all of the posts on this thread- just saw you mentioned the float test. I just thought I'd add here, we did the float test for 10 eggs in our incubator who hadn't hatched by day 25. The float test said about 7 of them definitely should have been viable... we opened the eggs in a last desperate attempt to help. They were all dead- the float test did not work for us.

I hate the float test! Well, correction, it's good for eggs you want to eat, to determine if they are fresh or old. But it's not good for incubated eggs.

It definitely cannot tell you that a chick is dead. No way. Sinkers are not always dead. Floaters are not always alive. It *can* let you know one is alive, if it moves, but if it doesn't move, that does not mean its absolutely dead. And if the chick is alive, a good candling should reveal it anyway, making float test irrelevant.

 

[Arya28]

I hate the float test! Well, correction, it's good for eggs you want to eat, to determine if they are fresh or old. But it's not good for incubated eggs.

I hate the float test! Well, correction, it's good for eggs you want to eat, to determine if they are fresh or old. But it's not good for incubated eggs.

It definitely cannot tell you that a chick is dead. No way. Sinkers are not always dead. Floaters are not always alive. It *can* let you know one is alive, if it moves, but if it doesn't move, that does not mean its absolutely dead. And if the chick is alive, a good candling should reveal it anyway, making float test irrelevant.

Yes! It does work so determine if eggs are fresh to eat or not! This is how we learned eggs last max. 2 months on our counter before going bad! Lol

 

[aart]

A floating eating egg is not necessarily 'bad'.
It just means it has lost a lot of moisture.
The only way to tell if an eating egg is 'bad',
is to break it into a dish and use your eyes and nose.

I thought floating an overdue hatching egg was to see if it was moving?
That the egg suspended in water made it easy to see any movement,
not that it floated or sank.

 

[WVduckchick]

A floating eating egg is not necessarily 'bad'.
It just means it has lost a lot of moisture.
The only way to tell if an eating egg is 'bad',
is to break it into a dish and use your eyes and nose.

I thought floating an overdue hatching egg was to see if it was moving?
That the egg suspended in water made it easy to see any movement,
not that it floated or sank.

I think the confusion comes when newbies mix up the two float tests.

(also all the misinformation that has been restated as fact, when it gets misunderstood)

 

[aart]

I think the confusion comes when newbies mix up the two float tests.

(also all the misinformation that has been restated as fact, when it gets misunderstood)

Boy, THAT'S for sure!

So do I have it right as far as the hatching egg float test?
Floating makes movement easier to detect?

 

[WVduckchick]

Boy, THAT'S for sure!

So do I have it right as far as the hatching egg float test?
Floating makes movement easier to detect?

Yes, if a floating egg moves on its own, then it contains a live chick. And floating does make it easier to detect that.
But chicks also rest, and don't always move, so the float test for incubating eggs just has too many false negatives for me. Plus getting the shell totally soaked, which i personally don't like. jmho.

 

[aart]

Plus getting the shell totally soaked, which i personally don't like.

Yeah, that part always bothered me too.

 

[casportpony]

I didn't read all of the posts on this thread- just saw you mentioned the float test. I just thought I'd add here, we did the float test for 10 eggs in our incubator who hadn't hatched by day 25. The float test said about 7 of them definitely should have been viable... we opened the eggs in a last desperate attempt to help. They were all dead- the float test did not work for us.

Sorry for your losses. The float test is not a reliable test and I wish people would stop using it.

 

[shelby hayden]

Okay everyone I have 2 duck eggs that are on day 23 24 and they seem to be pushing up into the air cell but have not broken it. There is still some space at the tip of the eggs is this normal? And would it be a good idea to put them in Hatcher now as it looks like they are trying to pip internally even though it is early?

 

[shelby hayden]

Want let me upload the video but one has a saddled air cell and one has a normal air cell the air cell is definitely bigger then what I have seen and if you have seen it before you will know what I'm talking about. They look as if they have no room other then the tip and if you where looking inside the egg at the membrane you would see that every move they make they are pushing on it to streach it at least the size of a beak on a silkie if not more.