Late to hatch chicks

[VaultGirl27]

My broody hen has been sitting since April 1 and still no pips. She has 2 bantam eggs and 2 standards. The video is of my white standard egg and the photos are of my dark brown standard egg. Any idea what's going on here?

 

[JaeG]

Are you positive she committed to sitting on the 1st? Has the temperature been a little cold while she's been sitting? That white egg definitely is still alive but isn't close to hatching so I understand your confusion. Hopefully someone else might have some ideas.

 

[VaultGirl27]

She's been setting in her own crate the entire time, only getting up once or twice a day for less than 5 minutes. Temperature has fluctuated between about 50 and 100. Maybe the temp fluctuations are the issue?

 

[VaultGirl27]

How far away from hatch do you think the white egg looks?

 

[JaeG]

This is a very good candling article with lots of photos to compare yours to: https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...ion-through-incubation-of-chicken-eggs.47879/

To me your white egg doesn't look more than 18 days along. It's still got a lot of space to fill there.

I'll tag a few members who have more experience who might be able to suggest what's going on. Hopefully when they are on they will come past and have a look.

@WVduckchick
@Pyxis
@casportpony

 

[VaultGirl27]

Ok thank you!

 

[VaultGirl27]

Also, a semi related issue... I bought 3 chicks to give to mama hen about 2 weeks ago for planned arrival today. This was based on the assumption that her chicks would hatch between Wednesday and Friday and I could slip these 3 in on Friday at a day old. So I got the 3 chicks today, but did not put them under her as her eggs obviously have not hatched. Now my dilemma is this... how long do I have until she won't accept these chicks? And if I give them to her before her eggs hatch, will she stop sitting on her eggs? I really wanted to brood them with mama hen in the separate part of the run that she's in already to reduce integration issues later. Obviously if I have to, I'm prepared to brood them myself, but it's not a preferable option if I can help it.