Help interpreting float test of abandoned eggs?

[JenniferCNY]

The babies are so cute! I am totally smitten with my 2 babies. If I have a broody next year I will definitely go straight to giving her chicks rather than letting her harch.

 

[AllGodsCreatures]

Oh yes! After the 7 eggs got broken, we figured we might end up with few/no hatchlings given that they were all shipped and the odds were lower to begin with, so I put in an order for 6 day-olds to be shipped to us. They actually arrived on Hatch Day, so the timing worked out quite well. All the chicks were instantly bonded to each other and to Mama Hen. We have lost a couple, one the day they arrived and one just last night (she was a bit weaker than the rest, perhaps just failure to thrive?) but the rest are all doing wonderfully

Some chicky pictures for you, hope you don't mind, I never get tired of looking at them
View attachment 1061733 View attachment 1061744 View attachment 1061745

Hey, just to let you know those are some adorable chicks ya got there. I'm sorry about the others that didn't make it, I have a question for you about "floating", I am incubating quail eggs and they should've hatched on Tuesday and didn't, I did candle them and could tell the egg was full with baby, so how do you "float" and what am I looking for, I kinda need the full explanation to this cause I have never heard of this before. Any advice or help would be much appreciated, God bless !!

 

[SoCalClucker]

Hey, just to let you know those are some adorable chicks ya got there. I'm sorry about the others that didn't make it, I have a question for you about "floating", I am incubating quail eggs and they should've hatched on Tuesday and didn't, I did candle them and could tell the egg was full with baby, so how do you "float" and what am I looking for, I kinda need the full explanation to this cause I have never heard of this before. Any advice or help would be much appreciated, God bless !!

Hi there, thank you, I love these chicks to death! It brings me back to when my kids were newborns, it's really such an amazing experience, and letting a broody hen mother them changes everything.

As far as the float test, I'm certainly no expert, and I think there are quite a few other threads on here about it from others who have far more experience than me, but my understanding is that when when an egg is overdue, one way to try and see if it's just late or if it's no good is by doing the float test. It basically verifies the size and position of the air cell, which should have grown to a certain extent during normal egg development. Use a nice deep bowl, fill with warm water, and see what the eggs do. The best possible outcome is for the eggs to float partially out of the water, maybe half to a little less out of the water, fat side up. If you're REALLY lucky, you'll see the eggs move because a live chick is kicking inside. Otherwise, if the egg drops to the bottom like a rock or floats high out of the water, it's probably no good. In my case, they all floated as they should have but there was no movement.

Hope that helps!

 

[AllGodsCreatures]

Hi there, thank you, I love these chicks to death! It brings me back to when my kids were newborns, it's really such an amazing experience, and letting a broody hen mother them changes everything.

As far as the float test, I'm certainly no expert, and I think there are quite a few other threads on here about it from others who have far more experience than me, but my understanding is that when when an egg is overdue, one way to try and see if it's just late or if it's no good is by doing the float test. It basically verifies the size and position of the air cell, which should have grown to a certain extent during normal egg development. Use a nice deep bowl, fill with warm water, and see what the eggs do. The best possible outcome is for the eggs to float partially out of the water, maybe half to a little less out of the water, fat side up. If you're REALLY lucky, you'll see the eggs move because a live chick is kicking inside. Otherwise, if the egg drops to the bottom like a rock or floats high out of the water, it's probably no good. In my case, they all floated as they should have but there was no movement.

Hope that helps!

Thank you so much I will give this a try God bless you

 

[AllGodsCreatures]

So I did the float test on my quail eggs and 10 out of 24 are still moving and today makes 24 days for some of the eggs and 22 days for others. Has anyone ever had this happen and take this long? I don't want to abandon ship if there is hope