Help Incubating Eggs

[Rose98]

I have 12 chicken eggs in the incubator they are up to day 16, 11 started forming 1 was infertile. It is nearly 2 years since my last hatch and have forgotten more then i thought when it comes to hatching eggs.
We candled them tonight. There are a number of eggs that i cant decide are bacteria or chicken. Orginal candle thought they were dead, second candle thought they were alive as they moved in a rhythmic way almost like a heart beat.... does bactera do this? With this last candle it was hard to see any real movement as they were quite dark .
So i guess my questions are.... would bacteria grow same rate as a chicken? Would bacteria move in a jumpy rhythmic way?(know it floats) and would these eggs smell by now if they were bad?
2/3 eggs that i was pretty sure were chicks didnt see movment from much.... this normal?
Please advise

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't do anything dramatic like tossing eggs unless they clearly have not developed. I don't always see movement when I candle, especially in my blue, green, or dark brown eggs. Bacteria will not move in rhythm like a heart beat. If there is that much bacteria in there you should easily be able to smell it through that porous shell. Bacteria certainly does not grow at the same rate as the chick. The egg provides the perfect food for bacteria to really multiply and incubation temperature is also perfect for them. If bacteria gets inside you will know it pretty soon.

I know it won't do any good to tell you to relax, it is a worrying time. But to me it sounds like things are going pretty well. Hopefully you will get a good hatch.

 

[Rose98]

Thanks for the replies!
Yes they are pretty full shells.Fingers crossed then.... hopefully lots of lil babies!

 

[Shamo Hybrid]

At day 16, aren't they pretty formed to where all you see is a big black spot? I doubt they would be moving around like when they were 8 days old and where you can see their heart beat. Leave it alone.

 

[Rose98]

Thanks guys! 1 external pip! But is a different egg to the one that we saw rocking last night, so hoping the other one is still okay.....
Also really struggling with humidity it isnt going above 50-55% and its so full the water is leaking out the holes around the side of the incubator.
Also the temp is really high all of a sudden... around 38-39 Celsius. Turnes the incubator down slightly but hasnt helped?....

 

[Rose98]

Thanks for the replies, will give that a go.
First chick out! A few hours short of 21 days, and its a vocal one haha. Wont stop doing the loud call chirp, i guess thats a good sign.
One more with an external pip so hopefully in a few hours it will have some friends.

 

[Sue S]

If you can always put some coconut oil ( a small amount using a Q-tip ) around the opening to prevent it from drying out & make it easier for the chick to hatch

 

[Rose98]

Few hours later qnd we now have 10 chicks out! Here i was thinking i had ruined the hatch. 11th not sure if its gonna hatch or not, last candle it was fully developed so will give it a few more hours. Last chick to hatch was about 12 hours ago, now on day 23.
And 12 egg was never fertile. At the moment 90% hatch. Thanks everyone.

 

[Rose98]

So hatxh finished with 10 chicks! Thanks everyone goes to show how tough they embryos are.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I try for a minimum of 65% for humidity after lockdown. You want the humidity up so the membrane around the chick doesn't dry out and shrink tightly around the chick so it can't move to hatch.

I'm not sure what is going on with those air cells. Were some eggs stored in dry conditions longer than others so they lost more moisture before incubation started? Some egg shells are more porous than others so they will loose more moisture during incubation than others. Especially if it is a homemade incubator maybe the air wasn't getting mixed as it should so you had different humidities in different areas inside. That last one is a stretch. Or it might be natural variation within acceptable limits. When people weigh eggs during incubation to determine how much moisture they are losing individual eggs can vary a surprising amount. They have to take the average instead of relying on one individual egg.

At this point all you can do is go into lockdown and see what happens. It sounds like you did everything right. I'm still pretty hopeful for you. Nature was kind enough to us to give a decent window of moisture loss where the eggs can hatch instead of everything having to be absolutely perfect.