Help with incubator!!

[Chixky2]

I hope someone can help!
We borrowed a little giant still air incubator that came with an egg turner. I even got a chart telling us when to add the eggs, temperature to keep, and when to take the turner out.
We did everything as the chart said to do. 3 days ago was supposed to be lock down day, so we removed the egg turner. increased the humidity and waited.
It has been 3 days and we don't even hear a peep. My two girls are really discouraged since by now we should have had a couple of chicks popping out.
I am afraid that the egg turner was slowing the development process. Am I off? Should I try to rotate the eggs, candle them? toss them?? I don't know what to do
Thanks for any advise. I hope someone can give us some light on this sad situation.

 

[chickens really]

Did you ever Candle the eggs during incubation? What was the temperature at? What was humidity?

 

[Chixky2]

Chickens Really, I did candle them right before we were supposed to take the egg turner out and we saw a lot of the eggs had embryos moving. they didn't look to me like they would be ready to hatch in 3 days, but I figure I didn't know what I was looking at (but they sure where moving). The temperature was at 100.6 while they were in the turner and humidity was 55. After we got them off the turner I couldn't get the humidity to get pass 55 for the first day so I read that lowering the temperature would help, so i lowered it to 99.5 and placed an sponge on the tray with some warm water. that did rise the humidity to 64. that is how it has been for the last past 2 days but we haven't heard any peeping or seen any movement. I candled two of the eggs today and they do not look completely form and couldn't see any movement. Didn't want to mess too much with the eggs so I didn't candle any more.

 

[chickens really]

Lock down means lock down. Have humidity set and wait. Don't open the incubator at all till you see external pips and then keep waiting. Make sure all aircells are facing up and leave them because Chicks need to get into position to pip the shell.

 

[chickens really]

Also do they have nice sized air cells ?

 

[Skipper81]

I would turn temperature back to 100.6 because my little giant reads the wrong temp it’s usually off by 1 degree compared to my hydrometer
Remember day 1 is actually day zero so they shouldn’t start to hatch until after 22 consecutive 24 hour periods
That’s if your temps weren’t to low
I’ve had low temps in my incubator add a day or 2

 

[Chixky2]

Also do they have nice sized air cells ?

Yes they all had a pretty good one when i candle them (when I candle them the time I was supposed to )

 

[Chixky2]

I would turn temperature back to 100.6 because my little giant reads the wrong temp it’s usually off by 1 degree compared to my hydrometer
Remember day 1 is actually day zero so they shouldn’t start to hatch until after 22 consecutive 24 hour periods
That’s if your temps weren’t to low
I’ve had low temps in my incubator add a day or 2

Will do, Thanks!

 

[chickens really]

Yes they all had a pretty good one when i candle them (when I candle them the time I was supposed to )

Just make sure all are facing up and then leave everything alone.

 

[Chixky2]

Lock down means lock down. Have humidity set and wait. Don't open the incubator at all till you see external pips and then keep waiting. Make sure all aircells are facing up and leave them because Chicks need to get into position to pip the shell.

wait, what do you mean by "make sure all aircells are facing up"? they are all laying on the side not on the pointy end as they are not on the turner anymore. Do I need to candle them and set them so the aircell is facing up?? oh man, this is as nerve wracking as having babies!!!