help newbie advice please....hatching eggs!

[hondagirl]

Hi everyone, this is a bit of an emergency post so please excuse the lack of intro's! We are novice chicken keepers and recently had one of our hens go broody. We tried twice to stop her brooding but in the end decided to try and hatch three eggs. She has been sitting quietly on them for 18 days, we've followed all the advice and took her off the nest everyday to eat and drink for 10 mins. Anyway, we never really got the hang of candling, dont know if our torch wasnt strong enough or our technique wrong but we have no clue if the eggs are ok. Tonight i had another look, in 2 of them i can clearly see a gap at one end and a black shadow round the egg. In the third one its all solid and dark. Gut feeling says the dark one is the one thats ok, but we have no clue!! can anyone help? We are on day 18 so surley they should be about to pip in the next couple of days. if they were 'bangers' wouldnt they have gone pop by now especially with all the hot weather last week?
what do we do and how long do we leave them if no chicks arrive?
Thanks very much in advance!
fiona

 

[ajacskr]

STOP!!!! don't do anything. Leave the all the eggs under the hen. Stop taking her off the nest, The last 3 days can be the most critical.

Trust me the hen is ALOT smarter when it comes to hatching chicks than we will ever be.
Just let nature takes its course and all will be well.

Mother nature has already decided what will hatch and what will not.

for you to have a good hatch.