Don't know egg age in incubator

[Impatient]

Okay, so after not having chickens for awhile, I decided to get up and running again and asked a friend of mine for some fertile eggs from her backyard flock.

Now my incubator is supposed to hold about 9 standard chicken eggs, so she gave me 9, but her eggs were HUGE so I had to finagle to get them fit in the incubator. After a couple days I candled to check that everything looked right and found that some of the eggs had obviously been hidden by a broody hem because they were at very different stages of development with 2 looking like they were literally about to hatch, 1 was at about 2 weeks and two more were at 1 week and the rest were fresh looking.

Not having high hopes, I figured I'd just have to have a staggered hatch. Well three days in one egg EXPLODES cue the frantic cleaning up of the incubator and surrounding eggs, and the egg that looked like it was close to hatch started to smell so removed it, chick had DIS, full yolk. Hope beginning to fall I carried on.

A week goes by and the egg that appeared 2 wks developed was kicking in shell, died the next day. So now down to 6 eggs from 9. Give it a few more days, candle, 4 eggs show 0 signs of development, I remove them from incubator, down to two.

Another few days go by during which my incubator had a major temp spike of 104 after a low of 89, all hope now lost, get it to temp, leave the eggs just in case. Another couple days and I've set up to get new eggs and decided to candle the remaining 2 before pulling the plug and 1 egg obviously dead, but the other one WAS KICKING AND MOVING AROUND in it's shell . Based on the space I could see, looked about 18 days so I went into lockdown even though the egg had only been in my incubator for two weeks.

Now for two days the egg has been wiggling and dancing, but I'm not hearing any peep's and due to how some eggs were already developing when I received them, I have no true idea of the hatch date for this egg and it's driving me nuts lol. Obviously 1 out of 9 is a terrible hatch rate, but I'd consider it a miracle after what a disaster this incubation has been and I really really hope it hatches without issues. If it's a hen then I will have won the bad luck jackpot.

EDIT: forgot to mention what kind of eggs. Honestly not 100% sure since my chicken friend has a mixed flock of blue/copper marans, red marans, and various Easter eggers. This lot of eggs were 3 blue, 6 chocolate (maran) with the final remaining egg being a chocolate. According to friend she only has blue/copper maran roos atm, so chick should either be a pure blue/copper maran or a blue/copper/red mix maran.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

Sounds like you've had quite the adventure already.

 

[DKFarms]

Wow! I have no words after all that, but I'll be watching to see if that last one hatches! More power to ya!

 

[bobbi-j]

Hard to say, but as long as it's wiggling, I'd keep it in there.

 

[Impatient]

Hard to say, but as long as it's wiggling, I'd keep it in there.

That's the current plan, I am concerned that it hasn't begun to chirp yet, I keep talking and chirping at it with my ear pressed against the incubator to see if it responds. The wiggles have lessened significantly, which I'm hoping means the chick has pretty much finished getting into position and will be chirping/pipping any moment now. I figure if nothing happens in the next 4 days I'll call it because that will have been 6 days since the wiggling started and if I'm correct that it was about 18 days when that started then after 6 more would put it at 24 days incubation, more than enough time to hatch if it's going to. Fingers crossed because this has been quote a rough ride and the anticipation is killing me xD. Wouldn't be so bad if I knew an actual day to expect hatching...

 

[Impatient]

OMG OMG OMG I think it's happening!!! Was getting ready for bed and thought I'd check on little eggy and pretty sure I see external pip! Starting chirping at it and it started wiggling up a storm. However it's not chirping? Little concerned because the pip looks lower than I recall the air cell being, now I'm going to be up all night monitoring this egg >.<

 

[DKFarms]

Well for heaven's sake, keep us posted! Now I'm wondering how it's going, so bad, and it's not even my egg!!! lol

 

[WVduckchick]

OMG OMG OMG I think it's happening!!! Was getting ready for bed and thought I'd check on little eggy and pretty sure I see external pip! Starting chirping at it and it started wiggling up a storm. However it's not chirping? Little concerned because the pip looks lower than I recall the air cell being, now I'm going to be up all night monitoring this egg >.<

The air cell draws down considerably in the last couple of days before hatch, so it could very well be in the air cell. That's actually the best way to tell when they are getting really close, when you don't know the exact dates. Look for the drawdown. The pip, of course, is a better sign

Hopefully it has hatched since your last post!!

 

[Impatient]

So far no hatch, no chirping, stopped the wiggle storm. Starting to wonder if it is a pip I see, it's not super defined, more like a tiny crack, thought I saw it moving slightly though like the chick was pushing. Literally stayed up all night playing chicks chirping on loop with my phone next to the incubator since it seemed to encourage the egg to move. Going on 3hrs with no visible movement and my brain is going to the worst case scenario and I'm fighting the temptation to candle and check for internal movement. Holding out hope though, maybe it's tired, maybe it's just finishing drawing it's yolk in. I'm completely obsessing and I know this, but after the nightmare this incubation has been I just really want ONE to make it. Believe me, I'll keep y'all posted, no matter the outcome. Think good, strong thoughts for little chickie, it has to be a fighter to make it this far! The lack of chirping is concerning, but I've had eggs before that didn't make a sound until they had a good sized external pip, rare, but has happened, so trying to remind myself not to freak out, yet >.< other concern is how low the pip is if it is a pip, it's like mid egg, which would be pretty low even after post 18day shrinking :s

 

[WVduckchick]

So far no hatch, no chirping, stopped the wiggle storm. Starting to wonder if it is a pip I see, it's not super defined, more like a tiny crack, thought I saw it moving slightly though like the chick was pushing. Literally stayed up all night playing chicks chirping on loop with my phone next to the incubator since it seemed to encourage the egg to move. Going on 3hrs with no visible movement and my brain is going to the worst case scenario and I'm fighting the temptation to candle and check for internal movement. Holding out hope though, maybe it's tired, maybe it's just finishing drawing it's yolk in. I'm completely obsessing and I know this, but after the nightmare this incubation has been I just really want ONE to make it. Believe me, I'll keep y'all posted, no matter the outcome. Think good, strong thoughts for little chickie, it has to be a fighter to make it this far! The lack of chirping is concerning, but I've had eggs before that didn't make a sound until they had a good sized external pip, rare, but has happened, so trying to remind myself not to freak out, yet >.< other concern is how low the pip is if it is a pip, it's like mid egg, which would be pretty low even after post 18day shrinking :s

You may or may not know this, but I'll toss it out anyway -- use your flashlight to shine different directions across the crack to see if you get a shadow. Sometimes they are so obvious from another direction. It still amazes me and I wonder how I missed it from the other direction! lol

Also, flashing the light where the chick's eye would be will often get enough response to see a little piece of shell move, or a little bobble of the egg. Anything to let you know its still alive. Heck, my eyes are bad, I use a magnifying glass, and look like an idiot hovering over the window.

Keeping fingers crossed for you and that fighter chickie!