Overdue chicken eggs! What do I do? Float test!

[Chicken Newbie07]

This is what I do when my eggs go past 21 days. This float test can help you figure out if the eggs are still viable.

Watch this video to see how to perform a float test...

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The float test can also drown perfectly viable eggs

 

[JaeG]

The float test is very unreliable and potentially fatal at a late stage because a missed external pip will let water in. Candling the egg is much more reliable and gives you much more information about what is happening inside the egg.

 

[Chicken Newbie07]

The float test is very unreliable and potentially fatal at a late stage because a missed external pip will let water in. Candling the egg is much more reliable and gives you much more information about what is happening inside the egg.

If performing a float test, it’s always very important to check for any external peeps, like you mentioned, failure to detect a peep can be fatal. It also has to be done fast, to prevent from temperature shock. As far as candling vs float, I have done both. Although candling let’s you SEE inside the egg, at day 21 and beyond, it gets very difficult to see anything g besides a black shadow and the air pocket. Many times , chicks won’t move or even make noise to give us a sign of life. Floating the eggs PROPERLY, can help determine weather the chick is still alive or if the egg was even fertile in the first place. Maybe the best thing to do is a combination of both candling & float .....
Regardless, thank you for your input, I’ll be sure to apply it.

 

[JaeG]

If performing a float test, it’s always very important to check for any external peeps, like you mentioned, failure to detect a peep can be fatal. It also has to be done fast, to prevent from temperature shock. As far as candling vs float, I have done both. Although candling let’s you SEE inside the egg, at day 21 and beyond, it gets very difficult to see anything g besides a black shadow and the air pocket. Many times , chicks won’t move or even make noise to give us a sign of life. Floating the eggs PROPERLY, can help determine weather the chick is still alive or if the egg was even fertile in the first place. Maybe the best thing to do is a combination of both candling & float .....
Regardless, thank you for your input, I’ll be sure to apply it.

It's easy to spot a dead egg when candling. They look quite different to one that's still alive. A live egg has a reddish tinge and is full under the air cell. A dead chick looks black and lumpy and you'll see a watery, yellow layer between it and the air cell. Many people on here have had an egg not move when floating, or the egg has sunk completely. They open up the egg to do an eggtopsy only to find the chick still alive, but it's too late by then.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If you candle at lock down, it's should be blatantly obvious if an egg was never fertile to begin with

 

[Debbie292d]

If you candle at lock down, it's should be blatantly obvious if an egg was never fertile to begin with

If you could see me trying to candle with a small but very bright flashlight and after watching several you tubes, you'd think I'd have it down, but at least I know the unfertilized ones or ones that quit right away there's nothing to see in there. The rest, I'm just stumped unless it moves lol, so they all go back in except the clear ones. We got 7 living out of 12, thus far with 2 removed. (shipped eggs).