Day 25 and eggs still not hatching!

[Kim2067]

It's incredibly frustrating.

We originally wanted our hens to sit on their own eggs, so we stopped collecting any eggs since the 28th of April. After 21 days, we decided that maybe this wasn't working because none had hatched.

So a few days later, we got an incubator and candled the eggs before putting in the ones we thought were fertilised. They were at various stages of development but we put them all in. We had some issues with the turning mechanism and more recently, the heating element kept developing crusts of limescale, so I have had to disassemble the incubator (potentially cooling the eggs) to add the water manually.

Now it's been 25 days, and the eggs have been wiggling for four days but none of them have pipped. They don't wiggle or rock all the time, just occasionally. If I talk to them after a long interval, they wiggle a bit more. I hesitate about candling them now because it just cools the egg down. They don't make any chirping noises either.

I read somewhere that eggs that don't hatch before 24 days are not viable, and the chicks would be weak even if they hatch, so now I am in two minds about this. None of the twelve eggs have hatched; they just seem to content to wiggle and rock about!

Should I leave them in the incubator, or just call it quits?

 

[nuthatched]

Have you calibrated your incubator for temperature and humidity? What type of incubator? Did you use bottled water? I'm sorry you're having a bad hatch.

 

[Kim2067]

No, I hadn’t calibrated the incubator; I just assumed that the temperature and humidity readings would be accurate.

It’s an RCom20 Pro and it had great reviews. I didn’t use bottled water, just out of the tap. Now I filter the water before putting it into the incubator.

Still no hatch today so I’m probably going to pack it in. Or put it back with the hens in the coop.

 

[SmColorInDaPan]

I'm in a similar predicament. Yellow girl I bought last year as a chick has at least 8 eggs under her, More like 12 but 8 that are likely fertile. She's laid them in the shell of an Old C. monitor so Deep and safe. (out 0f the sun also). One chick is out and about, as of Th. but nothing else. I tried candling but don't have powerful enough flashlight OR saw the one that HAS made it out? If she's still setting, she's the only mother, first timer, than more should be on the way.. Took 21 days for the one, since others LAID days later, will take days later to pip? Lost a couple bought Mid April so HOPING Have at least a couple from her efforts.

 

[McChooky]

I hope you gave them more time & they hatched. Some come early & others come late. Its usually better to let them come when they're ready.

 

[Yardmom]

I'm in a similar predicament. Yellow girl I bought last year as a chick has at least 8 eggs under her, More like 12 but 8 that are likely fertile. She's laid them in the shell of an Old C. monitor so Deep and safe. (out 0f the sun also). One chick is out and about, as of Th. but nothing else. I tried candling but don't have powerful enough flashlight OR saw the one that HAS made it out? If she's still setting, she's the only mother, first timer, than more should be on the way.. Took 21 days for the one, since others LAID days later, will take days later to pip? Lost a couple bought Mid April so HOPING Have at least a couple from her efforts.

I does not matter when a egg is laid. The days they are Sat on are the days that the chicks form. If eggs are added after a hen starts sitting on the eggs they usually are left in the nest after the first eggs hatch. The mother gets up to help the chicks that have hatched,