Time to give up?

JLH51

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First time hatcher here…started with 13 eggs. Ended up with 8 candled eggs in incubator. End of day 20 one egg hatched. Healthy chick. Currently towards the end of day 22 (approaching 48 hrs since hatch). No signs/movement/pips on 7 remaining eggs. Steady temp at 99 and humidity at 67-69%. Do I need to accept only one hatched and the others won’t? :( I don’t want to give up hope but I’m also a realist.

If that’s the case, this little one needs a bestie. They aren’t selling in farm stores yet. Could I incubate more right away and if any hatch add to brooder? Will this one be ok for 20+ days alone?

Thank you for any help!
 
Hi. welcome to the forum! Glad you joined, just wish it were better circumstances.

Some hatch early, some hatch late. The first was a little early so I advise patience. I'd wait at least another 24 hours on the other eggs. Right now I'd say it is unlikely any more will hatch since you have no pips and no movement by now but it is possible.

If the first chick is healthy and absorbed the yolk it can easily go 72 hours after hatch without eating or drinking. There is no immediate rush to remove it as far as its health goes. As long as none of the other eggs have pipped you should be able to remove it safely now if you wish.

I hate trying to raise a lone chick. Sometimes they do quite well but sometimes they don't. My suggestion is to add a mirror and a small stuffed toy in there to keep it company. That seems to help a lot of them.

Is a three week gap too big to add more chicks? Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. With living animals you just don't get any guarantees. On that level, there is nothing wrong with trying it. It might work and you obviously wanted more chicks.

But why was your hatch so bad? 8 out of 13 developing chicks isn't great but it isn't horrible either. But having 8 viable eggs going into lockdown and only one hatch isn't very good. I'll include a link to an incubation troubleshooting guide that may help you determine what went wrong. Once you decide the hatch is over open the unhatched eggs and see if you can determine when they died and what might have caused it. That guide is written more for commercial operations than for us but maybe you can get some help.

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

Did you turn the eggs the first couple of weeks of incubation? Were eggs incubated pointy side up, which is bad? Were they laying flat or pointy side down for hatch? Did you confirm that the incubation and hatching temperatures were correct? Don't solely rely on the instruments that came with the incubator. Sometimes they read incorrectly. Were they shipped eggs? Sometimes they get shaken so badly during shipping that they don't hatch, even if they develop.

Sometimes you just get horrible hatches, even if you do everything perfectly. But even my horrible hatches aren't this bad. I'd want to try to figure it out before I started more eggs.

Since you are using Fahrenheit I'll assume you are in the US. You can try finding your state thread in the "Where am I? Where are you!" section if this forum and chat with your neighbors to see if they have any chicks available. Call your county extension office and chat with them, see if they know anybody that might have chicks. Try Craigslist or something similar and see if you can find a couple of chicks locally. Go to your feed store and chat with them. Even if they don't know anybody they may have a bulletin board where you can post an ad for chicks.

Good luck and once again, :frow
 
@Ridgerunner gave you some great advice already. If you aren't seeing any pips, you can candle the remaining eggs and see if there is any movement in them. If there is movement, put them back and keep waiting.

If they quit, you may be able to tell with candling especially if they quit around lockdown. You would see some clear area in the egg and likely some streaking of the blood vessels breaking down. If they quit right at hatch will make them harder to see in to.
 
Hi. welcome to the forum! Glad you joined, just wish it were better circumstances.

Some hatch early, some hatch late. The first was a little early so I advise patience. I'd wait at least another 24 hours on the other eggs. Right now I'd say it is unlikely any more will hatch since you have no pips and no movement by now but it is possible.

If the first chick is healthy and absorbed the yolk it can easily go 72 hours after hatch without eating or drinking. There is no immediate rush to remove it as far as its health goes. As long as none of the other eggs have pipped you should be able to remove it safely now if you wish.

I hate trying to raise a lone chick. Sometimes they do quite well but sometimes they don't. My suggestion is to add a mirror and a small stuffed toy in there to keep it company. That seems to help a lot of them.

Is a three week gap too big to add more chicks? Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. With living animals you just don't get any guarantees. On that level, there is nothing wrong with trying it. It might work and you obviously wanted more chicks.

But why was your hatch so bad? 8 out of 13 developing chicks isn't great but it isn't horrible either. But having 8 viable eggs going into lockdown and only one hatch isn't very good. I'll include a link to an incubation troubleshooting guide that may help you determine what went wrong. Once you decide the hatch is over open the unhatched eggs and see if you can determine when they died and what might have caused it. That guide is written more for commercial operations than for us but maybe you can get some help.

Common Incubation Problems: Causes and Remedies (ucanr.edu)

Did you turn the eggs the first couple of weeks of incubation? Were eggs incubated pointy side up, which is bad? Were they laying flat or pointy side down for hatch? Did you confirm that the incubation and hatching temperatures were correct? Don't solely rely on the instruments that came with the incubator. Sometimes they read incorrectly. Were they shipped eggs? Sometimes they get shaken so badly during shipping that they don't hatch, even if they develop.

Sometimes you just get horrible hatches, even if you do everything perfectly. But even my horrible hatches aren't this bad. I'd want to try to figure it out before I started more eggs.

Since you are using Fahrenheit I'll assume you are in the US. You can try finding your state thread in the "Where am I? Where are you!" section if this forum and chat with your neighbors to see if they have any chicks available. Call your county extension office and chat with them, see if they know anybody that might have chicks. Try Craigslist or something similar and see if you can find a couple of chicks locally. Go to your feed store and chat with them. Even if they don't know anybody they may have a bulletin board where you can post an ad for chicks.

Good luck and once again, :frow
Wow!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is so helpful! I very much appreciate you taking the time to respond with such detail and care! Now that I’m at exactly day 23 now and 48 hrs after first/only hatch I candled the remaining 7. They all look identical. 3/4 bottom is solid black, 1/4 top transparent. What does this mean? Is there any hope here?
 
@Ridgerunner gave you some great advice already. If you aren't seeing any pips, you can candle the remaining eggs and see if there is any movement in them. If there is movement, put them back and keep waiting.

If they quit, you may be able to tell with candling especially if they quit around lockdown. You would see some clear area in the egg and likely some streaking of the blood vessels breaking down. If they quit right at hatch will make them harder to see in to.
 
I’m at exactly at day 23 now and 48 hrs after first/only hatch I candled the remaining 7. They all look identical. 3/4 bottom is solid black, 1/4 top transparent. What does this mean? Is there any hope here? No movement I don’t (think). Forgive me, clearly I am an amateur!
 

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