Eggs not hatching :(

[Fireraven0613]

Monday, my eggs would have been 21 days and ready to hatch. I had removed the turner and put them on lock down friday night before bed. Well it's almost 7 days later and only one egg has hatched. They were fertilized and when I candled them last week, most of them had grown chickens in them. So why aren't they hatching? How much longer do I wait before saying they're dead? Only 1 hatched and that was during the night on wednesday. It's doing great. Strong, peeping away, checking out it's brooder. I'm going to be sad if only 1 out of 12 eggs hatches.

 

[Impress]

Have you listened to the other eggs? Like literally taken them and put them to your ear to see if you can hear anything? A chick near hatching is fairly noisy in there, you can hear peeps and tapping and a little click that is their breathing.

 

[Fireraven0613]

I just listened to them all and didn't here a single thing

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Yea I would listen and candle them again, it's possible they may need help or are just delayed. Depends on your temp/ humidity and if they lost enough fluid before lock down.

 

[Fireraven0613]

I don't have anything that measures humidity. This is my try incubating eggs. My BIL incubates quail and I just did what he told me basically. I keep the water chambers full was that not right? There is no water in them now. Should I see anything when candling? Meaning all I see is darkness really. Could they still hatch? How long should I wait before giving up?

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Day 30, or if you smell something off. The 4 eggs that didn't hatch for me started to smell within 24 hours. You'll know.

 

[Fireraven0613]

Thanks Barbedwirecat I appreciated the help

 

[Ridgerunner]

You can do the float test. Put the eggs in a pan of water around 100 degrees. Discard any that do not float, thought they should all float. Watch them. If the are dead still in the water, they are dead. At that age, if anything is alive in there, you will see the egg jiggling around fairly soon.

You might want to look through these and open your unhatched eggs to see if you can determine at what point of development they stopped. It might help you for next time. I'd sniff them before I opened them though. If there is no bacteria inside they should be OK, but if you can smell them, I'd carefully dispose of them.

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

Florida Incubation Troubleshooting
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa204

Shrink wrap photos.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=491421

 

[Fireraven0613]

I think I'll wait till day 30 and just dispose of them if nothing hatched. I opened up one of my maran eggs last night. The shell is so dark I couldn't candle them and I was curious. There was a full grown baby chicken inside with the yolk sac still attached. It was completely still. It gave me hope that some more might hatch but I'm still pretty doubtful.

 

[clairabean]

Hoping your babies are ok. Without humidity testing, you can never really be sure.