Incubation Question

[Luvanimals101]

Okay, I am super desperate!! I am on day 17 of hatching my eggs which I am doing by wrapping scarves around them and putting a scentsy candle burner over them and wet sponges on the sides. The temperature is around 100 degrees constantly so I think I am good on that topic.. the humidity I have no idea about and we candled them today and one is a big dark spot almost all the way around with a air pocket that is about 3 times the size it was the first time we candled them.. the other one has something dark that looks like a crescent moon with more than one on top of each other in the air pocket which is also big. The dark spot fills the entire egg except for the air pocket and looks like it has a spot sticking out but I am new to this so I don't know what any of this means. We can't hear chirping. When should we hear that? PLEASE ANSWER IF YOU KNOW!!!! THANKS!! I really want them to hatch but know they may not so don't even care about my feelings just tell me what you think will happen or what we are doing wrong!! Anything! I just really want 2 baby chicks
Title edited by Staff for clarity

 

[Animal lover342]

Hi Luvsanimals101 you won't hear chirping till they are about to hatch which is about day 20, the dark spot is the chick which is probably almost done growing inside the egg. The thing that looks like it's sticking into the air pocket is the chicks beak which means it will probably hatch soon but do not turn them as they can move their position a might kill them. Because the humidity is probably not up to what it should be the chicks might have a problem hatching and might need some assistance hatching if there is any problem. If you can at least mist them it might help with the humidity. If there are any more questions I would be happy to help.

 

[Pazzwegian]

Firstly, don't panic! Eggs generally take 21 days to hatch, so you probably won't hear anything yet. I have no idea how your incubator will work, but from your description of candling it sounds like things may be going ok. There are plenty of sites on the Internet that show egg candling pictures day by day if you wanted to compare to yours. In my experience, the eggs will start wobbling a couple of days before hatch, which is the chicks getting themselves in the right position to pip. They will internally pip a day or so before hatch, which is when you can hear them peep. Very cute! If you can see a shape in the air cell of one of your eggs, this may be an internal pip. Then they will externally pip, and then usually do absolutely nothing for 6 or more hours, causing you to panic and wonder what's wrong! After this, they will start to zip around the egg, and this part can be quite quick. Then they will push on each end of the shell and hatch. The trick is to be patient, and give them a chance to do everything they need to before interfering. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

[Luvanimals101]

Thanks to both of you!!!! I will definitely keep you posted!! I AM SOO EXCITED!!! So, I have heard multiple things about the misting, some people said that the eggs are not supposed to get wet at all, but I don't know. Has the misting worked for you? I will probably try that. Also, in case they do not hatch on the 21st day, how much longer should I keep them before throwing them out? Thank you sooo much!!! So stop turning them on day???

 

[Luvanimals101]

Thanks to both of you!!!! I will definitely keep you posted!! I AM SOO EXCITED!!! So, I have heard multiple things about the misting, some people said that the eggs are not supposed to get wet at all, but I don't know. Has the misting worked for you? I will probably try that. Also, in case they do not hatch on the 21st day, how much longer should I keep them before throwing them out? Thank you sooo much!!! So stop turning them on day???

Oh, and one more question (probably will have more) how do I know it is time to help them out of the shell and if it turns out I do have to, how do I go about it? Sorry, this is my first time and I am absolutely clueless!

 

[Animal lover342]

If you mist lightly it won't hurt anything I've done it before,12 out of 13 hatched. You could probably keep them for a couple more days but after that if you notice that nothing else has changed then you can probably dispose of them. You can stop turning them now if you want cause they will have to eat into position to hatch.

 

[Animal lover342]

This might be long but I had a duck egg that I hatched with a 60 watt bulb and ten gallon tank lol but I didn't have the humidity anywhere near where it should've of been but when she finally was hatching she took a couple days to hatch I had to give hear little drops of water so she didn't get dehydrated. But when she just couldn't peck through the shell anymore and I could tell she was absolutely tired. So what I did was carefully broke small pieces of the shell away , it's important to not tear the membrane as the chick can bleed to death. If you happen to tear the membrane a little just set it back for a little bit a start again in about fifteen twenty minutes. This should help the chick hatch. But I had to completely help the duckling hatch out of its shell which took about four hours.

 

[Luvanimals101]

Thanks for all your help!!! We will try the misting and stop turning them now. Does that mean we should also stop candling or should we just be extra careful to not move their position?

 

[Animal lover342]

Just be careful when candling them. I hope everything turns out great!

 

[theduckgirl4110]

Calm down. I think they will hatch. Lots of people have experience of eggs hatching late too.