Thoughts on unhatched eggs?

[kllyjansen]

Hello All,

Yesterday was Day 21 for my ten Ayam Cemani eggs. From them, I have two robust chicks that hatched last night and in the wee hours of the morning. My concern is that there has been no signs of life in the remaining 8 eggs... no pips, no peeps. When do you typically throw in the towel on unhatched eggs? They candled well before going into lock down.

Incidentally, the two that hatched came from two of the three smallest eggs. The rest of the eggs are noticeably larger. Does egg size have anything to do with timing of hatch or hatch success?

I appreciate your insights!

 

[Ugadano]

From what I have read on here by other veteran hatchers, if your thermometers were a bit off, or if you ran your clutch at the lower end of the temp range, your hatch can be a few days late. I see it recommended to give them till day 24 before giving up. You may want to leave them still and quiet a few more days, but if you decide to candle and still see movement, give it more time. You may be able to erect a barrier between the chicks and the remaining eggs if you are concerned about the lockdown stage. Some are more rigid about it than others. Hope all is going well, hopefully another veteran hatcher will chime in soon.

 

[darkbluespace]

Glad you got a couple! Since eggs need to loose a certain amount of moisture to hatch, sometimes the humidity was right for the small eggs but too high for the bigger eggs.... hard to say. I would candle the remaining eggs and see if you have any internal pips. If those were my eggs or for special eggs in general, I might make a tiny air hole with a pin just to give them an extra chance. I have saved some chicks by doing that and have not found it to do any harm.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hello All,

Yesterday was Day 21 for my ten Ayam Cemani eggs. From them, I have two robust chicks that hatched last night and in the wee hours of the morning. My concern is that there has been no signs of life in the remaining 8 eggs... no pips, no peeps. When do you typically throw in the towel on unhatched eggs? They candled well before going into lock down.

Incidentally, the two that hatched came from two of the three smallest eggs. The rest of the eggs are noticeably larger. Does egg size have anything to do with timing of hatch or hatch success?

I appreciate your insights!

Congrats on the hatchers! Generally, significantly smaller eggs (such as bantams) do develop faster and are known for hatching a day or two early. Eggs that are sitting in a "warm spot" in the incubator will also develop and hatch quicker. However you are past day 21 which is the average for all eggs. So the two that you have are technically "on time". If the temps inside your incubator is not even and they happened to sit in a warmer spot than the others and the others are in a low average temp, it can delay them. Humidity, as stated can be an issue. Or the chicks could have been weaker and unable to make it out. Generally (with exceptions) any eggs that are goin to hatch usually do so within 48 hours (give or take) of the first chick hatching. After two days chacnces are the rest are quitters. My method is to candle and check for internal pips and/or obvious life/movement in the eggs 24 hours after the last hatcher. If there is no sign of life, most likely they've quite. I recommend tapping into the air cell at that point to double check for movement and moving to eggtopsy if there is none.

 

[kllyjansen]

Thanks to all for your feedback and advice. We decided to candle this afternoon and found zero progress in the remaining eggs since lock down. I'm bummed at the low hatch rate but knew it was a risk with shipped eggs. I will count myself lucky to have the two we have now and enjoy watching little Tikka and Masala grow up... hopefully into two nice pullets so that they both get to stay