how long should i wait before i give up?

[NatJ]

I have about 9 eggs left in the incubator that have all pipped. I lost one already during hatching. How long before I help them? They have been with the same hole for over 8 hrs, and it looks like it is breating heavily. I don't want to lose anymore. Any ideas?

Here is an article with lots of good information:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[ChookieG]

I have about 9 eggs left in the incubator that have all pipped. I lost one already during hatching. How long before I help them? They have been with the same hole for over 8 hrs, and it looks like it is breating heavily. I don't want to lose anymore. Any ideas?

Hey @Tshell, congratulations that they have all externally pipped and sorry about the death of one. Don't panic as it can take up to 24 h for them to break out of their shells after external pipping. They will naturally breathe heavily so it should be ok. You'll have to be patient and wait till the 24 h is up. If they haven't yet broken out by then, you'll have to do an assisted hatch.

@NatJ has provided a good link for assisted hatching so just read that carefully and follow accordingly. I'll just say that I've used rice bran oil instead of coconut oil as the latter solidifies at room temperature and below so it's a bit difficult to work with. Olive oil is safe too, I just used rice bran oil as it's in my kitchen.

Also about the one you lost, do you know what actually happened? Often times they still can be rescued if they have externally pipped but haven't hatched by 24h.

 

[Tshell]

Hey @Tshell, congratulations that they have all externally pipped and sorry about the death of one. Don't panic as it can take up to 24 h for them to break out of their shells after external pipping. They will naturally breathe heavily so it should be ok. You'll have to be patient and wait till the 24 h is up. If they haven't yet broken out by then, you'll have to do an assisted hatch.

@NatJ has provided a good link for assisted hatching so just read that carefully and follow accordingly. I'll just say that I've used rice bran oil instead of coconut oil as the latter solidifies at room temperature and below so it's a bit difficult to work with. Olive oil is safe too, I just used rice bran oil as it's in my kitchen.

Also about the one you lost, do you know what actually happened? Often times they still can be rescued if they have externally pipped but haven't hatched by 24h

 

[Tshell]

It had already zipped around, but just didn't push out of the shell. It was the very first one. And it was a large chick in a not so large egg. So I wonder if it was positioned wrong. I have helped two others since that one now. And those are doing well. Thank you for the reply. It is kind of stressful to watch....lol
I didn't sleep very much last night. But I missed another one that died after starting to zip. So I have been even more diligent. Should I give the eggs till the 25th day to hatch? I have a few eggs that I can't hear anything, and I don't see movement with candling.

 

[ChookieG]

It had already zipped around, but just didn't push out of the shell. It was the very first one. And it was a large chick in a not so large egg. So I wonder if it was positioned wrong.

If it has zipped around it's probably not positioned wrongly. A lot of things might have gone wrong. Here's a handy link of possibilities:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/egg-failure-to-hatch-diagnosing-incubation-problems.67011/

I have helped two others since that one now. And those are doing well. Thank you for the reply. It is kind of stressful to watch....lol

Awesome well done!

I didn't sleep very much last night.

Yeah I know what you mean! I was up most of the night in my first hatch. Had to assist one and the cheeping from the rest kept me up all night! (Stupid me - I kept the incubator in my bedroom! ). It was a very stressful time but very rewarding too. Try to enjoy the process if you can.

But I missed another one that died after starting to zip. So I have been even more diligent. Should I give the eggs till the 25th day to hatch? I have a few eggs that I can't hear anything, and I don't see movement with candling.

If they've all taken so long to hatch something is very wrong. Did you calibrate your incubator before you placed your chicks in? A good quality incubator can often be out by a few degrees. Humidity is important too though I don't think this may be your issue. Were these shipped eggs? How often did you candle them?

Given they've hatched pretty late at day 25, you may wanna give it another 5 days for the remaining ones that haven't pipped externally. For these though, have they pipped internally yet?

 

[chicky_duck]

All the best with your Christmas Chicks! Hopefully you'll have better hatch rate next time. Just make sure you calibrate the temperature and humidity of your incubator if you haven't already done so. I can't see how else the hatch rates could be so low except for these two possible reasons.

Unless.......

Are you in the States? Eggs don't cope very well when the day temps are too high but if you're situated in the Northern Hemisphere it should be Winter there now so temperature shouldn't be such a big problem. How did the first three died? Was it blood-ringed?

yes i am in the states, I live in the west, it was blood ring on two of them but the third one was a duck egg and it seemed to just stop developing, then it grew these wired black dots on the inside that just got bigger and bigger, than it stunk up the incubator so I just through it out and it fixed the smell.

 

[ChookieG]

yes i am in the states, I live in the west, it was blood ring on two of them but the third one was a duck egg and it seemed to just stop developing, then it grew these wired black dots on the inside that just got bigger and bigger, than it stunk up the incubator so I just through it out and it fixed the smell.

Hmmm.. I've never had eggs go bad ..even after 30 days in the incubator. Perhaps the eggs weren't as fresh as you thought given the low viability. Did you handle the eggs with gloves on? Were they ever washed?

 

[chicky_duck]

Hmmm.. I've never had eggs go bad ..even after 30 days in the incubator. Perhaps the eggs weren't as fresh as you thought given the low viability. Did you handle the eggs with gloves on? Were they ever washed?

no I did not handle them with gloves and I did not wash them

 

[ChookieG]

no I did not handle them with gloves and I did not wash them

it's probably best that you handle them with gloves in the future as our hands can potentially carry some pathogenic bacteria that may harm the eggs.