Eggs not hatching

[PeeWa]

Hi all,
Forgive me if I don know all the jargon as I am new to this.I wont be hurt if I get corrected. In fact I would appreciate it, if you did.

We have a brooding hen, plus 3 other hens, we gave her about 13 eggs total to sit on. 7 have hatched on different days, but the remaining 5 are not hatching. after about 4-5 days with no new hatchings,we candled them, and can see the air sack? is at an angle and the chicks, i think look fine. we thought they may be dead, but again, they look like the pictures online of what they should look like.

Yesterday we a saw a crack in one of the eggs, so I am hoping today we will have a new baby.

At what point do I call it quits on the eggs?

Thanks

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

Is there a chance they were layed in the nest after the other eggs? Or are they definitely from the original 13 eggs?

 

[Perris]

hello @PeeWa ! welcome to BYC

At what point do I call it quits on the eggs?

you could leave it to the broody. She will lead the hatched chicks out and away if she thinks they need to get out more than the remaining eggs need to be incubated.

 

[PeeWa]

Is there a chance they were layed in the nest after the other eggs? Or are they definitely from the original 13 eggs?

They are for sure from the original 13, we separated the Broody, cuz she kept grabbing new eggs and it was too many for her to sit on. One did hatch today.

 

[PeeWa]

hello @PeeWa ! welcome to BYC
you could leave it to the broody. She will lead the hatched chicks out and away if she thinks they need to get out more than the remaining eggs need to be incubated.

She gets really distracted when she has a chick in there so after a couple of days we move the chick an incubated bin. for lack of the proper word.

 

[PeeWa]

Will the broody stop sitting on the eggs if they are dead?

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

If they are still hatching I'd leave there in there. Maybe some of the 13 had been incubating a few days before being separated out. So they were ahead of the others in development.
That's the only thing I can think of.

You can candling them or hold them to your ear and listen for internal pipping. Glad you had another hatch.

 

[PeeWa]

Ok, maybe I was jumping the gun, looks like another will be coming tomorrow.

 

[Perris]

Will the broody stop sitting on the eggs if they are dead?

she can feel movement and hear any chicks working on getting out of their shells, so she knows if they are alive. Given you are dealing with the chicks as they hatch, I'd leave her to decide when to give up on any remaining eggs.

 

[PeeWa]

Is it possible the shells are too hard?
I have a chick that the shell open you can see the chick but shes not coming out, its been about 20 hours. The feathers already look like feathers.

Should I assist in the cracking of the shell? that sounds like it would be a rookie mistake, which I am.

thanks