over 21 days hatching eggs and nothing... please help!!

[ElbrusFarms]

HI there,

I have about 30 Silver Sebright eggs in my incubator... it's been 26 days and only 1 chick hatched 5 days ago... One egg slightly cracked and I can see feathers but chick won't move or come out

What should I do???

 

[Barbedwirecat]

You can try to help it hatch:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=45583&p=1

I'm not sure about the others though. What were your temps and humidity during the hatch and after day 18 lockdown?

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Sorry should have been this link here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9316

Also search helping hatch in the BYC search box. And WELCOME!!!

 

[ElbrusFarms]

I have Hova-Bator so I kep everything my instructions provided...

 

[Barbedwirecat]

Right, but do you know what your temps and humidity were?

I personally think Hovabators instructions keep the humidity too high, but that's me.

Did you open the incubator at anytime during lockdown after day 18?

 

[TinyBirds]

Were they shipped eggs? It's common to have almost no birds hatched from shipped eggs. Rarely I get a great hatch on shipped eggs, but not very often. I've wasted thousands of dollars on shipped eggs, and recommend other people not go through the same sort of thing. It's better to find a local farm to get eggs from, or just buy chicks.

 

[ElbrusFarms]

I kept temp at 99 and added water as instructed... did not open incubator after day 18.... just once to get that chick out....

 

[ElbrusFarms]

Yeah, good point... They were shipped to me

 

[Barbedwirecat]

DO you have a still air or a forced air incubator? Do you have a turner in there? These are variables that can also effect the hatching as well and can neccesitate making your temp higher. Shipped eggs are hard I have heard. I'm working on my first shipped hatch right now and have 15 out of 22 still going and moving. 50% hatch is normal for shipped. Were the eggs shipped well (any broken ones?)

Did you candle at all during the incubation? I would suggest if you are going to try and help the last chick out that you do an eggtopsy (open one) to see what happened. That will tell you MUCH more than just speculating what went wrong. You could also candle them to see if you have any infertile ones in there which can happen.

 

[ElbrusFarms]

I Just opened it... chick was dead inside

(((