help

[caljane17]

thx--i'll check again in a couple of days

 

[caljane17]

How much movement should I see? I only see a little floating around in the egg. It's been about 15 days

 

[red horse ranch]

They may not move if they are asleep. And babies sleep a lot. Even before hatching.
What concerns me is that the baby should probably be close to an inch long by now and pretty obvious when you candle. There should also be obvious blood veins around the inside of the shell. I wouldn't give up on them yet but if you don't see any development in another couple days then you may have to give up on the eggs.
You may be able to find a chart online which shows the different sizes of keets at various stages of incubation. This would give you an idea of what you should be seeing in the egg.

 

[caljane17]

Today i saw a fair amount of movement in most of the eggs and saw what looked like the beginnings of beaks. i'm hopeful

 

[caljane17]

Now that I know the keets are alive inside the eggs, i'm uncertain about when to stop turning them. Mom sat on them for 6-7 days then i caught her and put her in her coop with the eggs, where she sat next to them but not on them for a couple of days then i put them in the incubator. If i subtract the 2 days they weren't sat on then 25 days is Oct 5. should i quit turning then or just wait until they start to break out? thx

 

[red horse ranch]

This summer one of my guinea hens brooded eggs and hatched 6 keets. When she got off the nest there were still of lot of eggs left. I candled them and found 6 with live keets inside, all at various stages of development. Since I didn't know when to expect them to hatch I just put them all in the incubator without turning them. They hatched over a 16 day period and all 6 were normal keets. I think the first half of incubation is the critical period when they must be turned for even distribution of the blood veins. But I'm not sure that it is that necessary in the final week.
This is just my opinion but I've found it to be true several times.

 

[caljane17]

thx--i think they are due are due around oct 8 so i will stop turning them and up the humidity around oct 3. thx, royce