should i give up hope?

[katiec11]

Movement is fantastic! I've looked and looked for a chart to show the amount of air cell at what day and I can't find a great one for chickens. The ducks have one showing a great side view.

ChocolateMouse posted a great chart showing the size of the embryo in the egg. From that chart and the charts I'm posting, I'm "thinking" your egg may be somewhere around the 18-20th day. Your embryo appears to be close to day 18-19 but the egg has a bit larger air cell than the 18-19 day eggs in the charts.

What is your humidity right now? Hopefully someone else chimes in their view to corroborate my thoughts. Day 18 is the normal lockdown time for eggs so I think you'd be safe to lock down the eggs.

If it was my eggs...I'd lock them down and increase humidity to approximately 65% the very same as regular incubation. And then I'd hope for the best.

Thank you wicked chicken- yeah they have been in lockdown since I took over humidity is at 65%... I was thinking too about Day 18... at least there is still hope

 

[Wickedchicken6]

It's always surprising how incredibly resilient embryos can be.
I'm hoping everything turns out for your eggs.
I hope you'll keep us posted.

 

[katiec11]

I will definitely keep you all posted I will be so amazed if I get any hatch!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I would try to bring the humidity down, to be honest. The chicks only need the higher humidity after they pip internally. At that point you can usually hear them chirp very quietly. (Ok, sometimes pretty loudly tbh.)
In nature, the humidity rises naturally under the broody hen when the chicks start to pip to break the shell. That releases moisture from the eggs into the air. So I would say, go into lockdown the moment you can hear something. You can bring the humidity up REALLY fast in case of an external pip by placing hot, wet paper towels laid out in the incubator to give more surface area for the water to evaporate from, or even use a spray bottle to mist the walls with hot water. You can go from 20% to 80% in a flash, without dropping the temperature in the incubator this way, but it's MUCH more difficult to bring humidity down I find.
I'd be more concerned about whether to turn the eggs or not. If I were you I would probably try turning the eggs three times today but I have no idea if that's the best course of action or not at this point. My guess is you are probably right on day 18, but since we don't know *shrugs*. I'm not good enough at assessing embryos to tell you either way.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I would try to bring the humidity down, to be honest. The chicks only need the higher humidity after they pip internally. At that point you can usually hear them chirp very quietly. (Ok, sometimes pretty loudly tbh.)
In nature, the humidity rises naturally under the broody hen when the chicks start to pip to break the shell. That releases moisture from the eggs into the air. So I would say, go into lockdown the moment you can hear something. You can bring the humidity up REALLY fast in case of an external pip by placing hot, wet paper towels laid out in the incubator to give more surface area for the water to evaporate from, or even use a spray bottle to mist the walls with hot water. You can go from 20% to 80% in a flash, without dropping the temperature in the incubator this way, but it's MUCH more difficult to bring humidity down I find.
I'd be more concerned about whether to turn the eggs or not. If I were you I would probably try turning the eggs three times today but I have no idea if that's the best course of action or not at this point. My guess is you are probably right on day 18, but since we don't know *shrugs*. I'm not good enough at assessing embryos to tell you either way.

Chocolate Mouse has made good points. I waffled about mentioning upping the humidity for lock down. To me it appears that the air cell is getting a fair size...yet the embryo isn't filling the egg as much as I'd expect for the air cell that size. My concern is having the air cell become too large where the chick can't hatch. I just had a hatch of guinea chicks where the incubator had been locked down with 4 days of humidity prior to lockdown for the guineas (I stagger hatch) so I left it to where they were peeping and upped humidity because I thought they're air cells wouldn't be large enough. I lost about 4 keets...they appeared to be shrink wrapped.

But you can do it the way that CM has suggested as well. I pour steaming water in the reservoir below if I'm upping the humidity...all the ways mentioned work well.

Personally, I wouldn't turn the eggs since it seems so close to hatching.

Of course...now you have two completely separate opinions from two people...lol.
I'm certain we're not meaning to make it any harder for you. Both of our ideas about your eggs have merit. We just have different concerns and ways of going about it.

 

[katiec11]

Oh it is just so hard to decide what to do- I think I'm just going to leave it as it is and keep my fingers crossed for a miracle.

With the rolling I hope that my broody would have done that part for the first (guessing) 13-15days of development and hopefully that's enough so they don't get stuck- if they are as close to hatching as we think it might do more harm turning them now??

Hopefully they are able to cope with the higher humidity that they were in for the extra days.

Thank you all so much for your help and I will keep you posted- I anything I'm thinking Monday

 

[Wickedchicken6]

If this helps at all...I've had a mixture of broodies setting, 13 at last count. I've got a few eggs in different stages of growth and I have absolutely no idea of the approximate hatch day for any of them. I see one looks about day 16. The rest are approximately days 4-8, not counting the eggs still in nests in the coop. I'm in the same predicament..lol.

 

[katiec11]

If this helps at all...I've had a mixture of broodies setting, 13 at last count. I've got a few eggs in different stages of growth and I have absolutely no idea of the approximate hatch day for any of them. I see one looks about day 16. The rest are approximately days 4-8, not counting the eggs still in nests in the coop. I'm in the same predicament..lol.

So hard knowing what to do- the funny thing is I had 20 eggs in my incubator- I put 13 of them into lockdown (4not fertile) and had 12 eggs hatch out on Monday/Tuesday... I wasn't even worried about the 6 I had under my broody and had them as a back up How wrong I was lol

 

[katiec11]

Said I would keep you posted this is what I would up to this morning! Omg!!! I can not believe it!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

HOORAY!