Eggs taking longer than 21 days.

[RiverviewHen]

I am going to assume warm water , but you know what they say about assuming

 

[duluthralphie]

I think it means to put the eggs on water and see if they move.

That is what he means, but before doing that try to candle. Even a dark egg should show something after 21 days. It will either be full other than the air sac or you will see movement into the air sac or the eggs will be clear, which is easy to tell on dark eggs even....

Before you float make sure you candle to look for cracks and holes. They will show up easy on dark eggs, the light will be bright in them... You do not want to float an egg a chick is breaking out of and have the chick drown.

 

[RiverviewHen]

When I candled almost the entire egg was dark and then it had a lighter pocket looking spot at one end.

 

[duluthralphie]

Sounds like a chick in there....could be alive or dead though..No movement into the lighter area? The movement will be very small and hard to see.

 

[RiverviewHen]

Sounds like a chick in there....could be alive or dead though..No movement into the lighter area? The movement will be very small and hard to see.

I didn't hold the egg very long. Just a couple seconds. I didn't know how long it took for them to catch chill.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have had mine go 12 hours without heat and hatch. They are not as sensitive as people like to think. A chicken will get off the nest for 30 minutes or more at a time..

All cooling does is slow the development of the chick and delay the hatch..and as Sour said, some hens do a start and stop incubation at the beginning so you really do not know when the actual incubation started..
Good Luck!

 

[lazy gardener]

Don't do float unless you know how to do it. Read "Hatching eggs 101". I find the float test to be useless.

 

[RiverviewHen]

Ok I did the float test. out of 8 eggs only 2 jerked. The other 6 I went ahead and busted and they were just rotten. No blood or tissue. I guess my rooster isn't doing his job. I definitely have 2 that are live babies. They looked different when candling and had very visible movements in the water