Okay, now what do I do??!?

[92Pony]

I set 10 eggs on the morning of 1/25,(day 1) making 2/14 day 21 - by my calculations. Candling @ day 6 or 7 (I forget which) revealed activity in most, if not all. (I had ? marks on my green EE eggs because they were really hard to see - light brown eggs all looked viable).

I had one pip on the evening of day 20, and on day 21, we had three out when we got home from work. That was Tuesday. Today is Thursday (Day 23) and as of this am, there was still no more activity since. No pipping, no rocking - nothing that I have seen.

On Wednesday am, I did a real quick snatch/grab on the 3 hatchees, as they had dried and were 12-24hrs out of the shell. I added hot water back to the bator immediately, and saw the temp/humidity levels return to normal very quickly.

I'm hoping for a surprise when I get home today, but I can't say I'm holding my breath. How long do I hold out?

This is my first ever hatch. My three that hatched are all doing well. (pics on PC at home) I'm just hoping for a better percentage....... (BTW, using a hovabator 1602 w/turner)


Thanks,

Wade

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

If nothing has happened by tonight when you get home, you can recandle, but most say not to toss them until day 25 at least. Personally, I'm too impatient. I recandle at day 23, and if there's no movement, I'll open an egg or two (slowly and carefully) to see if they are alive or not. Good luck!!

 

[92Pony]

If nothing has happened by tonight when you get home, you can recandle, but most say not to toss them until day 25 at least. Personally, I'm too impatient. I recandle at day 23, and if there's no movement, I'll open an egg or two (slowly and carefully) to see if they are alive or not. Good luck!!

That was a thought I had. Is there a chance that I could 'manually' hatch them on day 23, 24, or 25 and have them survive?

 

[92Pony]

Oh, and of the 3 that hatched, 2 of them were my questionables (lol)...... which makes it all the more troubling that the others haven't hatched.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote:
If I see movement, I try to leave them alone, at least for a little while. I am a firm believer in if they can't hatch on their own, they weren't meant to. That's not to say I haven't helped here and there, but I usually only try to help if something has zipped and then gets stuck. I used to do more 'helping' my first couple of years of hatching, and I just had to cull too many chicks that weren't meant to make it. A robust chick makes for healthier and thriftier adult stock.

When you candle, if they have pipped the air cell and don't make any further progress in a few hours, You could poke a SMALL hole in the shell so they at least don't suffocate before they've had a chance to orient themselves and been able to start zipping,..

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Oh, and of the 3 that hatched, 2 of them were my questionables (lol)...... which makes it all the more troubling that the others haven't hatched.

I bet!

 

[MamaMarcy]

Day 1 is the day AFTER you set them (set day is day zero).

You can also do a float test. Take a cup of WARM water and let it come to be still. Set one egg in (make sure it has not PIPd)...let it come to stillness. If it rocks back and forth it is still alive. You might need to watch it for several seconds to a minute. If it moves, put it back in the bator and wait. If there was no movement it's pretty safe to toss it. Mind humidity levels if you do this. I use a spray bottle to mist my still air bator and it brings levels up quickly.

Candling this late stage can be deceiving because the chicks are so big you very possibly will not see movement.

Good luck!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Depends on what time of day you set the eggs. I have always read from many, many long time breeders / hatchers, that if you set early in the morning, the day you set is day one. That's how I've always counted it, and it has always come out right for me...

 

[92Pony]

From reading on here, I came to that conclusion clover - I set at 7am, so I called that day 1. Either way, now I'm at day 22 or 23. Oh, and I understand and tend to agree with the idea that if they don't hatch on their own, maybe they weren't going to make it or be strong enough....nature tends to know best a lot of the time.

MamaMarcy, you answered the question I came here to ask. There was no more action this evening when I got home from work.

I decided to yank some and candle them - I didn't see any movement in any of them. I won't take that as a reason to give up hope at this point.

On two of them, the air cell at the end wasn't straight across the end of the egg - it was more at a 45* angle (if that makes sense). Does that indicate anything?


Thanks y'all!

I'll update here with whatever happens in the next couple of days.

 

[92Pony]

Sad to report that out of the 7 that did not hatch, 6 dead in shell and one (apparently) non-fertile.

I'm going to start a separate thread on it trying to figure what went wrong.


Wade