Hatching under broody question?

[nomirawr1]

I started 21 days ago, with 8 welsummer eggs under my austrolorp (after my Wyandotte had *issues* as a broody). One failed to develop (blood ring), and one stopped developing at around day 10-12.
They're shipped eggs, which sat, big end up, for 24 hours before setting under broody. She's been a good broody - leaves them for 10 mins a day every morning, but goes right back.

Day 20 (yesterday), one pipped externally on its own, could have been any time, I saw it around 10pm)
Day 21 (today), a second chick pipped externally sometime before 5am. First chick still hadn't made any more progress. Have checked every few hours during the day, and neither chick is making any progress on zipping.
Chick 1 is peeping very quietly and moving minimally. It's 7pm, so almost 24 hrs after external pip with no moves to zip.
Chick 2 seems ok, peeping quite loudly and moving around a lot more, but still making no moves to zip.

4 more eggs with grown chicks - no internal pips when candled. Can't see any movement, but I haven't sat out there for a while watching them coz even at night, mama gets antsy and demands her babies back.

I actually wondered if the humidity is an issue. Even with mama sitting on them - its very dry and very windy here at the moment, and while she has protection in her hen house, the ambient air is still very dry.

Anyway, how long do I wait for these other 4 to hatch before saying 'ok, too long'. Also, will mama take those 4 if they hatch too far after chick 1? (or will she abandon remaining eggs once #1 is out & about?)

These were not cheap eggs (none are in NZ), so I'm hoping as many survive as possible.

 

[azygous]

I've never used mail order hatching eggs, but the consensus here on BYC is they are often disappointing. So many other factors can come into play to decrease hatch rate, such as environmental conditions, as you're concerned about, and bacteria.

I've been through this several times with a broody sitting on eggs that just don't want to hatch. At some point, especially if a few chicks have hatched, you need to make the decision to remove the unhatched eggs so your broody can get on with brooding her live chicks since she may want to continue to sit on unhatched eggs.

This last time, my broody made the decision for me. Two chicks were peeping under her, having hatched on day 20 and four eggs remained unhatched on day 22. She suddenly, and ferociously, got up off the nest, shook herself off, and abandoned the eggs to care for her two chicks.

I gathered up the eggs and put them into a basket under a heating pad with a moist paper tower for humidity and let them go for another twelve hours. I then opened them up to see what was in them. Only one had a fully formed chick, but it was dead. It had a yolk sack on the outside of its body. These were eggs from my flock.

This is a tense moment, but I would say that by day 22, you probably aren't going to see any results if you haven't seen any action before that point. Others will say wait a few days longer, but when a broody hen is involved, I question the wisdom of doing that when there are live chicks needing her care.

Ultimately, it's your call.

 

[nomirawr1]

Yeah, I was trying to avoid shipped eggs, but where we live, it's rarely possible to get fertile eggs. Turns out the 4 were dead. I candled them all for a while yesterday, and there was no movement or peeping or anything, so I cracked them open. 1 had died a few days earlier - probably around day 16. The other 3 were full size, in position to pip, and then died. Not sure what happened there.

We lost the weak chick that took too long to hatch as well. After 36 hrs, I helped it 'zip' and it still took another 8 or so hours for it to come out of the shell. It was looking pretty weak last night & this morning it was very dead.

Thanks for the reply anyway.