I'm starting to freak out - day 20 and no pips

[DangerChickenHouse]

I did the dry incubation method. I didn't add any water before lockdown. The gauge read about 16% and on day 18 I bumped it up to 60-70%.

Last night we candled. We saw a wing move in one of the eggs. The others just looked full. It's day 20 now. No pips. After reading some other threads, I'm worried they are going to shrink wrap.

What can I do?

 

[Arielle]

WHen you candled the eggs how large was the air cell?

Diagrams of air cells, duck and chicken:

http://www.poultryconnection.com/quackers/aircell.html

Chicks can be late due to slightly low temps or a power outage. Give them at least 5 days after the due date.

Not every chick will hatch, even those that make it to the day 20 mark. A number of huge changes need to occur in order for the chick to hatch.

Sounds like at least one is close to hatching!!

 

[DangerChickenHouse]

I looked at the diagram and it looks about right.

I'll breathe. Five days huh? Geez. Who knew this was going to be so hard?

 

[Arielle]

Yah, it's really very stressful. But honestly, when you have the technique down and hatch a few the stress is less and the fun is sky high.

Do you keep a note book? EVen the big hatcheries keep notes. Easier to see where things went wrong or to catch a problem before disaster strikes.

You may be surprized to hear peep over the next day or so. ALso, how did you count the days--that is easy to be off by a 1/2- 1 whole day. I'm terrible at the counting thing, so I'm usually fretting about the due date. LOL

 

[Arielle]

ANything happening?

 

[CapricornFarm]

Relax, honey, they aren't supposed to hatch until day 21. If they hatch , super, if not , we try again. Go chicks, go

 

[wowmanacat]

This first time I hatched last year I was a mess. Some hatched on day 21 some not till day 23. my last hatch they were all early and I was not all the way ready for that at all.

 

[Arielle]

Early, late, or on time. All depends on the temp during incubation.

 

[DangerChickenHouse]

Nope. Nothing happening. No rocking. No peeping. Nothing. It's day 21.

 

[mtnviewfarms]

Don't give up on them yet! I posted exactly the same as you did a few days ago. We used a cheapo LG w/o fan and
didn't put in accurate them/hygromometer until lockdown and found out the crummy one that came w/the LG was running
3 degrees cold for the whole first 18 days!!!!!! GRRR..........

We had a heck of a time getting it up to 70 percent humidity during lockdown but finally did. Not a peep or a pip until late on the night of day 21 - one lone chick hatched out about 10 p.m. During the night 6 more hatched out and it kept on going for another
day and a half - delayed due to the lower than ideal temp and no fan we guess.

We had set 42 eggs and ended up with 20 adorable BR babies - 12 females and 8 males - majority of the other eggs
tried to hatch but they couldn't break through the glue like white layer. I noticed things ended up ok - no matter how
long it took them if I even saw a dot of chicken break through the white layer. It was heartbreaking as we could hear
them peeping and see them working very hard but they couldn't break through the white layer to get out. We tried to 'save' a couple even though we knew from reading here and other
sources that it would 'end badly' for them and, sadly, it did. We are focusing on the 20 cuties that made it and are doing things to try to do better next time.

Just purchased a new Hova Bator with all the bells and whistles and ordered a fan kit for the cheapo LG which should help improve our hatch rates in the future. Good luck!

Let us know how it turns out and don't give up on them!!!!!!!!!!