How can I tell if a chicken egg has stopped developing?

[Teacherchick18]

My I wish I knew what to tell you. Hope the little chick gets his or her strength. This week will be our first successful hatch (the Lord willing) and I can't wait till Wednesday or Thursday!! Today is our last day of turning.

I think the chick is getting stronger. He's moving around more but still not dry. I only have had 2 pip. One of them didn't finish zipping. I feel like it was my fault, I had the reservoirs filled up to the brim to make sure there was enough humidity as one of the eggs had pipped but not made any progress at all after more than 13 hrs. In my attempt to get a better look at the egg to see if the little beak was still moving since I couldn't hear him anymore, I bumped the bator and splashed water over the edge of the reservoir. It was just enough to get onto the other chick that was zipping (face down at the time) and drown her. Or at least this was my determined cause of death. I felt absolutely horrible, poor thing. I buried her this morning in the flower bed.

I don't have much experience with hatching chicks, however, I didn't get much action on day 21. I attribute this to the fact that I had the temp drop down on the night between day 18 & 19. But, my point is that everyone on here it seems, talks about how they have pips on day 19 and 20 and chicks hatching out fast. Don't forget that they may be late and they may take a long time to come. I'm sure you know this but I felt like everything I was reading was about early/quick hatches. I just needed to remember that they can be late too. The last 3 days or incubation are the worst in my opinion! Best of Luck! I hope they all hatch healthy!

 

[GeorgRodway]

To to keep the humidity at bay I use a hairdressers spray bottle and spray the egg which leaves a light water mist over them and doesn't drench them x

 

[aart]

Are you measuring your humidity?

 

[Teacherchick18]

Are you measuring your humidity?

I didn't measure until day 19. I think that the humidity was way off for the hatch. The reason I think this is because I had eggs wiggling and then they didn't pip or anything and then the one that did hatch never dried. I left it in the bator for about 15 hours and it was still super wet. At that time it was able to move around a lot so I put it under a heat lamp. Within about 10 min. it's tummy was all fluffy. That makes me think I had the conditions wrong. I had 2 devices that I was using to test humidity but one was reading 40% and the other was reading around 72%. Neither one was really accurate on the temp so I am thinking that they weren't accurate for the humidity either. I feel like the first 18 days went really well so I want to try again, however the eggs were donated so I worry that I won't be able to obtain any more. Any suggestions on a good and accurate hygrometer to get? Where can I find one?

 

[aart]

Not personally but I know there's a lot of discussions about them out there also how to calibrate the ones you have

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