hatch times when do I give up

[1Chick Magnet]

how long have your hatches taken? I do not know when to give up. my chicks hatched yesterday on day 21. how long do I give the rest of the eggs? the last hatch happened at 19 days but at day 22 I gave up. there were fully formed chicks in some eggs. wondering if I should have gone longer. need advice.

 

[Mahonri]

From what I've read you can call it quits at the end of day 22. Check each of the eggs carefully, listen to them. If you hear something,carefully break into the air cell to see if there is a beak or movement.... if there is, you can help a little more and then put them back in with a wet paper towel. I saved one just like that.... it had pipped early but nothing had happened for two full days and all the others were done. She is the runt of my almost 7 week olds but she is cute... A little CA white leghorn.

 

[TrinkaPuppy]

The very first hatch I did, I made a horrible, uninformed decision, and part way through day 21, opened all the eggs that hadn't hatched (which was most...I messed up the humidity a little) from the big end. Crazily, of the 8 eggs out of 12 that hadn't yet hatched, 5 of them had living babies that ended up surviving somehow, even though I did all the work for them.

Of the remaining 3, 2 were duds, and one had died in the egg. I lost one of the five at day 6 in the brooder. Everyone else made it.

I've never done that since, b/c I now know better, and b/c I have more stable humidity, and typically have much better hatches, but I have opened eggs at the very end of day 22 a time or two since. I have had 1 chick survive when I did that that hadn't pipped at all yet. At that point, I figure it's unlikely that anymore are going to survive anyway, and I do like to get a count on what had developed to what point anyway.

I really think I just messed that first batch up b/c I opened the lid to take pics of the first and second eggs to hatch, and the rest of the babies would have been fine if not for that. Who knows...was just a weird fluke of beginners stupidity/luck, I think.

 

[dancingbear]

Many have had eggs hatch late. I've had one hatch 3 days late. That chick is now this little Dorking hen:

She's the black one. Her name is Little Chicken. The other one, the grey penciled, is Alice Grey.

 

[1Chick Magnet]

on day 23 I opened 6 eggs that did not hatch. 5 were gone. the air cells were hugh and the fully formed chicks were wrapped like mummies. what happened? egg 6 was still alive. I broke the membrane and it bled out. horrible!!! can anyone tell me what happened so it will not happen again? I have 40 eggs on day 18 today.

 

[Marion]

I had a hatch of 22 chicks last year out of 26, 21 hatched on time (day 21) and the other 5 I left in the incubator and 3 days later another hatched... none after that though. I learned to give them time if nothing else, what harm can it do to wait a few more days?

 

[1Chick Magnet]

did you take the ones that hatched out?

 

[FrontPorchIndiana]

Keep going! Mine were supposed to hatch on Monday (day 21). Nothing happened. But today, I hear peeping!

 

[1Chick Magnet]

that is so great to hear. let me know if they hatch.

 

[dancingbear]

If your temps are little too low, you'll have slow hatches. Low temps can also cause crooked toes,(curled toes?) Too high causes early hatch, and splay legs, and something else, I forget what.

If your chicks seem mummified, or stuck to the shell, your humidity was probably way too low.

I have a fan in my LG, so I try to keep it between 99.5F and 100F. For still air, I believe it's supposed to be slightly higher. There are a lot of threads on that, you can do a forum search for incubator temperatures.