Hi, I have a silkie bantam egg that just hatched on day 29. This is my first time hatching eggs, and they are hatching out naturally under a 'coop broody', a white silkie chicken (definitely not bantam but possibly half bantam), who is also a first-timer at this.
On day 27 I reluctantly went out to the coop to go throw the eggs away, and to my surprise, I saw a gray little beak poking out of one of the eggs. I was thrilled. However, this chick ended up dying during the hatch on day 28. I felt terrible because I felt like I should have helped him, but he never appeared to be in distress so I thought he had it covered on his own.
When I noticed the chick had died, I also noticed another egg had pipped on day 28. I picked it up and heard a loud, indignant 'CHEEP!' as if to say, 'Put me down! I'm working here!' The cheeping chick was much more lively and energetic than the first chick who died, who I only ever heard make a few weak sounds.
About 12 hours later, the cheeping chick still hadn't made progress beyond that one little pip. However, I held the egg up to my ear and heard dogged tapping and scraping sounds, and I could feel the little guy spinning around inside his shell. I talked to the egg and he cheeped answers in return. All good signs.
This morning on 29, I couldn't sleep any longer and I hopped out of my bed at 6 a.m. on a Sunday. When I lifted Mama's breast a bit, the gooey little bugger stumbled forward and squeaked hello. I think he hadn't been out of the shell long, seeing as he was still wet with that 'just-born' look to him.
About five hours later I went out and checked on him again. He is now a perfect little fluffball, warm and dry and enjoying the safety of Mama's undercarriage. I checked the remaining 3 eggs which show no signs of pipping. Of these three eggs, in my heart I feel that only one of them will try to hatch; my intuition says the other 2 are already dead.
I moved the three remaining unhatched eggs to bask underneath another broody girl in the coop. I did this to distract her from stealing or trying to kill the live chick. My hope is that she will also get a chick to hatch, and then she can co-parent with the first mama instead of lashing out.
I did my best not to change the way the eggs are oriented in the nest, so that there aren't any upside-down pippers or chicks that have to struggle to re-orient themselves.
Like I said, this is my first time doing this, but my theory as to why these eggs are hatching so late is that the broody mama sitting on top of them didn't seem to have much in the way of egg instincts. Her compulsion was only to sit, and she never did anything to position or turn the eggs. Often I would come home from work and find eggs sloppily hanging out the sides of her body, half-warm or not warm at all. I always tucked them back under her hopefully, but by the time day 22 rolled around, I had lost almost all hope that anything lived inside those shells.
I googled around a bit and found almost no accounts of chicken eggs hatching on day 29. Everything I read seems to advise people that all hope is gone on day 29, but I can testify that this is not the case. I know I won't have a full hatch at this point, but I'm not going to throw the other eggs away *quite* yet.
