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I brought the eggs from a local farmer. He had different breeds penned up about 5 hens and 1 cockerel in each breed. He said he had a good hatch rate as well on 7 of the 9 eggs but he hadn't tested the other two eggs:
He tested some of his barnevelder eggs before as well a his hybrid eggs but hadn't tested the cream legbar crosses
Get a big bowl of warm water and float test your eggs. This will tell you if they're still alive in there and have any chance of hatching. Water should be 99F - just the same as the temp inside the bator. Let the bowl sit for a minute till the water stops swirling around. Then put the egg in it, wait a minute for it to steady itself, then watch for rocking and ripples. If it sinks, that's bad. If it floats really high in the water, that's bad. If there's a live chickie in there it will make irregular wobbling movements and there'll be ripples in the water. If it goes still and doesn't move in two minutes then that's most likely bad too.
If you've got a live chick just dry the egg off carefully and return it to the bator. And wait...
I only read about this method about two weeks ago and I've used it three times since then, with very accurate results. Two dead in shell and one live chick that went on to pip and hatch normally, all by itself with no assistance. From now on I'm going to use it on every egg that hasn't pipped by the end of day 21. It saves a lot of time and hanging about trying to convince yourself they could still hatch on day 25, 26, 27 even, cause someone else on BYC had that happen to them...
If it is only day 21, step away from the bator and go watch a movie, crochet, go jogging, take a long shower or bath, go out with friends, or something else to otherwise take your time up! Yes, it is true that a lot of chicks will hatch on or by day 21 but this is not always the case.. Sometimes they can go a day or two late.. Most of those times, the thermometer is not perfectly calibrated and the temp may be a 1/2 or even a whole degree off.. We are unnaturally incubating eggs and there are lot of factors involved that would not be with a hen.. Sometimes things just don't happen the way we expect.. A 21 day incubation period for an unnatural incubator is an estimate, not an exact...
i feel your anxiety...
i also set 20 Silkies on Jan 22 and I was expecting yesterday to have something....
but no...
also there is no sign of pipping as of yet today.....
what is going on in there?????
they are making me crazy