how long is too long to remain in the egg shell?

[floridachickhatcher]

they were due to hatch 22 and 23rd and oddly i lost 4 they died after they made zip lines and i have 17 beautiful chicks hatch out healthy and 1 puny i think is gonna die and i have 6 chicks in shells right now and i got worried so i expanded the pip holes they made if the 6 arent hatched by sunday i think im going to have to bust them out i worry for them being in the shell this long cause i thought i read somewhere after being in the shell for 3 days they have to come out because they will have absorbed all the egg yolk and will start getting weak from lack of food so Sunday will be day 24 and 25 for them if they are still alive and they are the last ones i think that need hatching i have 16 eggs total and 6 of them i can tell have LIVE chicks in them so i think the 10 are quiters cause i have not seen any movement whatso ever

 

[mljohnson05]

The longer they have been piped, the more likely it is that the membrane can dry out or become rubbery and make it hard for them to hatch.

I have usually busted in and helped after 36-48 hours...But that is just what I do.


Make sure you have a wet sponge in the incubator to help keep the membrane moist.

Also: do you see movement or hear noises coming from those eggs?


Best Wishes,
Laura

 

[Mmmatt13]

I'm going to follow because I'm curious about how long to leave in un-pipped chicks, and when to give up. I have 5 hatched (all pipped some time last night), and 7 still not moving. One was wiggling last night but never pipped, and I'm kinda starting to worry about the five in there, they will have been in there for more than 24 hours by the time I leave and get back tomorrow.

 

[floridachickhatcher]

sadly i had to help them all out i lost another one during the night after he zipped im thinking all 5 i lost after zipping drowned so now im going to bump my humidity down to 75% instead of 80% and when the chicks hatch and it spikes to 90% im just going to take them out after an hour and put them in the brooder where its warm and im going to lose one of the ones i helped i know for sure he was stuck to the shell cause i see where his instines are hanging out and i have seen that before and the unpipped eggs im just going to leave them alone i think those are quiters and dead in the shell im afraid to open them and i have 16 left in the tub brooder i have 17 but one is looking kind of sickly but im pretty sure all 5 chicks i had to help bust out are going to die cause as i hatched them out they were sticky and i saw someone said thats a sign of high humidity i will most likely be burying them all tomorrow and cleaning the incubator for my next lockdown Monday

 

[Frenchchickens123]

Hi, sorry to hear about your hatch. Does sound like high humidity. I know when you read about incubating even the instruction manuals say to run at 45/50% humidity until the last 3 days. A lot of people including myself run the incubator DRY for the first 18 days and then bump humidity to 65/75%. Some people don't bother until they see the first egg pip. It can be difficult incubating the first couple of times until you find something that works for you. Everyone seems to do it slightly differently but in my experience and from what others do, running it dry for at least the first 18 days seems to avoid the mistake of having wet chicks. Hope this helps amd good luck with your next hatch.

 

[cmom]

I put a wet sponge in my incubator and it brings the humidity up nicely.

 

[floridachickhatcher]

yeah i do that with a wet sponge as well i run the humidity 50/60% for 18 days and then 18 to hatching i have it at 70/80% this is the first time i have ever had them sticky so im going to run the humidity at 60/75% after day 18 and see what happens with that as long as im hatching OVER 10 chicks im fine with that but if they are sticky with this next hatch then im going to have to bump it down to 60/70%

 

[davylindas]

So to run the first 18 days dry mean that you do not put any type of wet sponge to the incubator? I know that seems like an obvious yes answer, but I just wanted to make sure??

 

[floridachickhatcher]

omg i can see where another chick is trying to bust out of the shell im temped to just go bury them and spare them the pain of dying in the shell or after them come out

and with dry incubation let me see if i understand this the humidity is ran low so that all the wetness inside the egg is used up to prevent drowning and then when its time to hatch them out then the humidity is risen to moisten the membrane and the egg for them to break out is that the concept of it?