Incubating chicks- day 22!

[Kat8569]

Hello,

We have incubated 5 eggs- all when candled were fertile. We have followed all the incubating rules to a “text book” fashion and all were very much alive and moving around in the egg on the last candling day, 17.
We are now on day 22 and only one chick has hatched, the other 4 are making no noise nor are they rocking. Are they likely to hatch now? What may have caused them not to hatch? At what point is it best to open up the incubator and candle them?
They are in a brinsea mini eco incubator which has worked well in previous hatches!

Thank you!

 

[Punkybrewster]

Were they shipped?
What was your temp and humidity?
Were the gauges calibrated?

 

[Kat8569]

Yes they were posted, we left them for 24 hours prior to incubation for them to settle. They were all fertile and developed correctly for day 17.
The temp was 37.7 and humidity is measured by the water pools so no exact levels.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Humidity % is important. You need to have a gauge in there.

Shipped eggs are difficult to hatch.

When incubating any eggs, humidity has to be within a certain range or not enough evaporation occurs within the eggs causing them to drown in the shells before hatch.

This may be the issue.

Go ahead and candle them. No fear of shrink wrapping them if they havnt pipped.

 

[Kat8569]

Thank you, that’s really helpful! I will purchase a gauge and candle them!