I'm about to pull the plug...

[chickychicka]

Argh!! I am so torn! I am asking for your honest advice, please!
I've had 3 chicks hatch from 7 incubated eggs on day 20. All 7 eggs went into lockdown and showed movement when I candled on day 18. Today is the end of day 23 and the other eggs have not shown any signs of life. As I am already on the "giving up" and throwing the eggs out thought, I candled and did the float test and both showed no signs of life or movement, but the eggs floated with the air sack side up and not too high or too low. And 2 of the eggs still showed veins, but the size of the chicks inside seems still to be the same as when they went in on day 18. I really believe they died after going into lockdown.
Does anyone konw what else I could do before throwing them out - I can't reverse that step so I want to make sure all my options are used. Please, any more tips?

 

[orps-usa]

Whats your humidity day 18-21?

 

[seventreesfarm]

I had 8 out of 24 that went into lockdown not hatch. They were viable, but some of the shipped eggs had huge aircells. Now I'm wondering if they didn't have a ruptured membrane and just evaporated too much to hatch. Two of the duds are homegrown, so it could be just random chance. Out of the 16 that hatched one looked like it might have had too much egg, not enough air cell. We had to cull it last night.

I kept my humidity in the mid 30's days 1-18, then went to 60-70% for lockdown. It was hard to know if I should go low for the eggs with small air cells or high for the eggs with huge air cells, so I picked a medium range. I think I'd do the same again, even losing 1/3 of the viable eggs.

 

[FeatheredFreind]

i would give them more time. some people on these threads say they have had late hatchers on day 28.

 

[stina12141979]

Have any of them pipped internally? if ya don't know I would check for that. I had 10 eggs in for three days now. lost one to suffocation cuz it pipped internally and I didn't notice until it was too late. I checked for pips in the other 9 and then made a small external pip for fresh air. None have hatched out yet but they are all peeping and trying real hard. I would crack at least one before any go into the garbage personally.

 

[FeatheredFreind]

Stina-what do you use to put the whole in the egg without risking doing to much?

 

[stina12141979]

Well first candle the egg to verify were the chick/ beak is and then I used a clean sharp steak knife and did a repeated peck at it until a small hole was made, obv as far away from the chick as poss. In my case it was dead center of the eggs fat end. Then I used a blunt object, mechanical pencil end, to make the hole just big enough so I could see. If you see blood stop and apply pressure until it stops. You should see the chick move within the membrane if it is still viable. If it hasnt broken the membrane and is alive leave it be and just keep the membrane moist and keep a eye on it.

 

[FeatheredFreind]

My last hatch which was my 1st I had several fully developed that i believe drowned. So this time around the humidity here is really up so I put a small medicine cup of rice in the bator to help. I hope that it helps.

 

[chickychicka]

The humidity was between 63-70% the last 3 days (and beyond).
As I had NO sign of life at all, not the slightest movement at all, even in the float test, I cracked the eggs. All had chicks inside, one was smaller (I could tell it was less developed too, not just smaller in size so it may have stopped living after I put it in lockdown as its siblings started the hatch process one day later), one had a deformed beak that was completely twisted/uneven, and two looked just like the ones that hatched - but they were all dead.
I was not able to tell from candling if they had pipped the internal membrane or not, but when the eggs were open they were all still inside it and none had attempted to get out. Not sure what went wrong with the 2 that looked just fine. From one of those 2 healthy looking chicks there was also blood when I cracked the egg. But never any movement.
3 out of 11
What could have gone wrong?

 

[Texasmja]

And 2 of the eggs still showed veins,

Hopefully the water you used to float test was warm so as to not shock them. And if you can see veins, they are still alive! Give them some more time.