Overdue eggs! Help

[Lezs]

Hi, my light Sussex has been sitting on 5 eggs for over 3 weeks now. Friends told me they'd hatch approx 21 days and that I'd hear chirping etc. Yesterday I took one egg which felt very 'watery' out and cracked it. It was just filled with rotten liquid. Then took another egg thinking they'd all be like that and nearly died when I found a nearly fully formed chick inside!!!! (Feathers just starting,eyes not fully formed) obviously it died but will any of the eggs hatch? Was going to leave the eggs under her until 28 day mark then check them all. I can't see anything through shells at all....

 

[PouleNoire]

Have you tried candling? And that first one was probably never fertile in the first place

 

[JaeG]

You can candle them to see if they are still good. Dead embryos will look very black, have sunk towards the narrow end and there will be a watery gap between it and the air cell. A live embryo should look more red than black (depending on the egg shell colour) and the egg under the air cell will look very full - you may even see veins. The air cell takes on a slant just before the chick inside pips internally so don't panic if the air cell looks large.

 

[lazy gardener]

You might want to sneak them into the house tonight and give them a good candling. Do you have a good candler? When I have very dark eggs, I use a table lamp with a tin foil covered tube to direct all of it's light into the egg. I use a 7W CFL. Be sure you candle in a room that is completely dark. If the eggs are close to hatch, you may not see anything b/c chick will completely fill the egg. But, if you have any early quitters, you should be able to discern those and remove them. Before candling, familiarize yourself with embryo development, and candling procedure on "Hatching Eggs 101" in the learning center.

Is it a staggered hatch, or were they all set on the same day?