how long to wait

mstricer

Crowing
13 Years
Feb 12, 2009
7,513
232
416
Ohio
Im on day 20 and dont see any moment when candling, I was wondering how long should I wait before I say their dead. It's just a practice run and I'm glad I didnt buy any hatching eggs, wasted my money. I will continue to do practice runs untill I get it right. One more question..... when you lock done how do you keep humitity right my has been going from 65 to the highest of 67% the temp thing I have right between 99-100. I opened to candle this afternoon and the humitiy dropped down to 57 will this hurt them if they are not dead?
 
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I just saw that people cut bottoms in the egg cartons while incubating. Is it bad if you dont do this with cardboard egg cartons? OH no
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Nope you wont see movement on day 20 when candling. It should be almost completely dark with the chick filling the egg. You should see a well defined air cell in the big end of the egg. I always lay my eggs on their side to hatch. Poor chicks fall over when hatching standing up.

Are you sure your eggs are fertile? Did you candle around day 7 to 11 and see chick moving inside? It would have been a black dot wiggling around at that time in gestation.


Leave them in lockdown until day 21 and they should hatch. They could wait until day 22 sometimes. Make sure before you do the float that you are definitely on day 22 of incubation.

Before tossing the eggs, float them. Get a large bowl of warm water (100degrees) measure with a candy thermometer. Set one egg at a time in the water. Let it completely stop moving. Then watch it. If it moves in the water or creates a ripple in the water, the egg has a live chick inside.

If it sinks to the bottom, its dead, toss it.

If nothing happens, put it back in the bator, wait 24 hours and float again. If nothing happens on the second float, you should probably toss out the egg.
 
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well, I do know that if they are in the egg too long the yolk dries up and they may still hatch, but be weak and maybe have problems. After day 26 I would get rid of them. I didn't see any movement from my eggs when I candled on day 18 or on day 21 when I had my eggs. I waited until day 28 to get rid of them, but one hatched the morning I was gonna get rid of them. It was weak and had a leg problem.
 
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Thanks I did candle them on 7-11 and saw movement and now the you are right the egg is the way you said it should be thanks I'll keep fingers crossed
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Okay came home day 21 did float test they all floated even the ones I really didnt think were doing anything. All five floated now I just wait?
 
You should be on lockdown, from day 18 - 21. You shouldn't have them out candleing them. This is a very important time, and the humidity is higher than the first 18 days. Every time you take them out of the incubator, that affects the humidity and the egg viability. A float test should not be done the day they are due to hatch. I believe that is done on day 25 or whenever you are calling it quits (ready to toss them out).
Good luck on your hatch.
 
Glad you have a pip, happy hatching!
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DO NOT open that incubator again!


For future reference, after Day 18 is called lockdown for a reason- it means lock that bator and do not open it! If you keep opening it the humidity will get messed up. And by then the chicks should be positioned for hatching- handling them may cause disorientation.

Don't worry about the bottom of the egg carton- I forgot once and still had a 100% hatch.

Let us know how it turns out!
 

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