Late quitter!? Day 18! Help!!

[Silkiesally]

Hi! I’m new on this forum and forgive me, my English isn’t the best as I am located in the Netherlands. but I’ve been stalking this forum for a couple of weeks now. I’ve been trying to hatch silkie eggs and this is my second batch. First batched died (4 eggs) because of malfunction of my incubator and for my second batch.. also 4 eggs 2 we’re infertile one had a blood ring but this little guy was super excited to come out. The last egg had a lot of movement yesterday which was day 17 and lots of veining.. today I did my final candling to find out it had zero movement and no veins.. I did candle it quite thoroughly and it looks like it died.. and was a bit on the small side.. but I’m not sure!
Could anyone please help me!

 

[BDutch]

Hi Sally, your English is great as far as i can tell. I am not a native English speaker and Dutch too.


I never candle eggs this late in the process and maybe its normal the veins disappear. I woukd leave them in the incubator with the right temp and humidity.

Did you read about incubating? In the article section there are a few articles about incubating. I only have experience with broodies not with machines. Except to start the process. For my last hatch I bought a lousy 4 egg incubator, but I wouldn’t trust it to hatch healthy chicks.

Tip: introduce yourself/your chickens in the introduction forum and add a link to this question for those who actually can give answers.

 

[Silkiesally]

Hi Sally, your English is great as far as i can tell. I am not a native English speaker and Dutch too.


I never candle eggs this late in the process and maybe its normal the veins disappear. I woukd leave them in the incubator with the right temp and humidity.

Did you read about incubating? In the article section there are a few articles about incubating. I only have experience with broodies not with machines. Except to start the process. For my last hatch I bought a lousy 4 egg incubator, but I wouldn’t trust it to hatch healthy chicks.

Tip: introduce yourself/your chickens in the introduction forum and add a link to this question for those who actually can give answers.

Thank you! And it’s nice to hear there are more dutchies in this group!
I’ve introduced myself in the introduction page just now !
I think I might buy a better incubator as this wasn’t too expensive but I did a lot of tweaking as the incubator malfunctioned. I have it completely stable now.
I’ll just wait for the replies before I get really impulsive and open up this egg because I convinced myself it died !

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!

It is still early in your incubation. I'd go into lockdown mode (stop turning and raise the humidity) and give it at least 6 more days. It is not that unusual for eggs to hatch a couple of days early or a couple of days late. Just give it a chance.

You read about an egg exploding. That happens when bacteria gets inside and egg and multiples. If bacteria is not growing inside then there is no risk. If bacteria are growing inside you should be able to smell it, that rotten egg smell is awful. So just sniff around the incubator and leave it alone if you do not smell that rotten egg smell.

Good luck with that egg and let us know how it goes. And once again,

 

[Skyeknight]

I have a very similar situation right now. Had 11 eggs under a broody and they were all supposed to hatch this Tuesday. I already removed 2 when they were halfway though incubation as those didn't develop anything and were not fertilized. So of the 9 left, 2 hatched Monday and 5 on Tuesday. I thought the remaining 2 had died as it got quite cold this month, but I left the eggs under my broody Silkie as 1 seemed the be moving the other not. That one hatched this morning. However this evening the one that didn't move did move in the egg and made sounds, hasn't pipped yet but I expect to see that tomorrow morning. So even though it's 2 days late and didn't move it looks like it will still hatch.

Candeling this late is not ideal as it does make you insecure about what to do when they don't move. But as far as I am aware human babies are also not kicking 24/7.

Worst case scenario if it died and you leave it in it will stink real bad. Worst case scenario if it's alive and you toss it you will have killed it. Long story short, be patient for at least a week past the supposed hatch day.