incubating "old" eggs

[dmmcdougal]

I think these eggs are goners, but here was the situation: We had a precious pair of bantam modern game chickens. The rooster was lost and about a week later we found the hen had hidden a nest. We put about 6 eggs in the incubator and after candling were down to 2 viable ones. I didn't know about the lock down idea; I was just going on the instructions with the incubator and removed the turner at day 20. I had to fiddle with changing out the floor pan and the eggs were out for about 1 minute max. We quickly candled them and thought they still looked good. This is possibly where they died. I didn't disturb things at all after that. I cracked the lid for literally 5 seconds to add some hot water via a large syringe when it got low on day 22. Today is day 24. I was only holding out hope that they would hatch late maybe with the delayed start, but is this wishful thinking? When do I pull the plug? We've fallen in love with the Silver BIrchens and they are so hard to find around here. We were really hoping to build up our flock a little with these eggs and to turn around a sad situation when we lost the roo. Uggg.

 

[lazy gardener]

Eggs aren't going to die from the bator being opened for a few minutes. Some bators have a cycle built in where the heat is turned off deliberately for a bit each day. And Mama gets off the nest, usually every day, until it gets close to hatch day. Sorry you lost your roo. Had the hen been sitting on the eggs, or just collecting them?

 

[dmmcdougal]

She had been collecting them. In fact, I just remembered that one off the viable ones was one we found deep in the straw and put in the bator two days later. So maybe it's too soon to count that one out.