Question!

[KyBirdLady]

I have 20 eggs left on day 23, 7 hatched in the last three days. No more have piped, what should I do? What’s going on?

 

[Kiki]

Can you take a couple of the eggs into a very dark room and candle them right now and get clear pictures?

 

[KyBirdLady]

I can try again but they all seem fully developed.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

It will be helpful if you candle the eggs, take photos and post here so others can have a look. Pay attention to the position of the egg(s) when you remove it from the incubator, because if the chick is alive and in hatching position, its beak will be near the upside of the egg. Also, at this late date, candle in a very dark room with the round side up. If a chick is alive, it will often reach up towards the light. You may also be able to see if it has internally pipped into the air cell. I only hatch with broody hens and have never had a chick hatch after day 22, but plenty of people using artificial incubators have had chicks hatch successfully on day 23. Good luck!

 

[KyBirdLady]

Here’s a few of them, I’m not sure what’s going on with them? Could is be all the hatched chicks feces infecting the eggs?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I will give you my thoughts, but please wait for more opinions before you make any decisions. First of all, I've never had viable but soiled eggs eggs fail to hatch late in incubation, although that may have been a factor when chicks died in earlier stages. Have you removed the chicks that have already hatched from the incubator?

Most of the embryos unfortunately look dead to me. Some appear to have died earlier than others. A couple May still be alive, so again, please wait to hear from others here. FYI the first few days of incubation and the last few days are the most common times of embryo/chick death. Three days ago, one of my broodies hatched 11 of 12 eggs. Eighteen days in, all 12 looked good. I've done eggtopsies in the past after chicks failed to hatch, but never saw any obvious reasons they died in the shell. And frankly, i found it disheartening to see a chick that looked perfectly fine, but for unknown reasons failed to hatch. If you wish to examine your own failed eggs, put each egg in a sealed clear baggie, then break the egg to see if anything is obvious. Meanwhile, I will tag @Kiki to come back and look at your egg photos. While you wait to hear from others, I am including an article that gives some common reasons why chicks die before hatching.
https://www.melbournebirdvet.com/de...end of incubation,with both food and immunity).

 

[Kiki]

Here’s a few of them, I’m not sure what’s going on with them? Could is be all the hatched chicks feces infecting the eggs?View attachment 3485751View attachment 3485760View attachment 3485759

These eggs don't look too good.
This one looks like a quitter.


Can you take this particular egg and very gently rotated and I want you to pay attention to the inside darkness while you are rotating it gently.
I want you to see if that inside darkness stuff moves freely as you're rotating the egg or if it stays still.
Report back with what you see.

 

[KyBirdLady]

It moves freely, I’ve never seen anything like this in any of my failed eggs before this, I’m thinking I’ll leave the eggs in there for a day or two, the 20 left.

 

[KyBirdLady]

The eggs are starting to stink quite horribly, I’m not sure if I should leave them or throw them out.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Definitely throw out the ones that stink asap. I do believe most and probably all are dead, but I won't tell you what to do, other than suggest you do a sniff test on each egg if you want to hold out hope. Be careful though, because you may be smelling at least one egg in the incubator that is getting ready to explode. You do Not want to deal with an exploded rotten egg, trust me you don't.