Time to unplug the incubator?

[trish5909]

Hi, we've been hatching our first batch of chicks & Murphy's Law unfortunately kicked in: everything that could go wrong, did. We had temperature fluctuations and a hard time keeping the humidity up. On Day 18 our kids accidentally unplugged the incubator and my husband didn't see it for a few hours. By then he said the eggs were cold. The room they were in was 74F at the time. Since we removed the egg turner on Day 18 we were able to keep the humidity at 65F and the temperature steady, except when it was unplugged. We carried on and on Day 21 we had our first pip in the evening. The first 2 chicks hatched Day 22, followed by 3 more on Day 23 and 2 more on Day 24 for a total of 7. They all look healthy.

Today is Day 26 and the remaining 5 eggs aren't doing anything. Last night I did the float test that I read about on BYC and to my surprise they were all "low floaters" = viable? My questions are: If they had gotten to Day 18 and died, would they still be low floaters & tricking me into thinking they may still be ok? Could they possibly still hatch at this late date? I was planning to call it a day & unplug last night but now I'm not sure...

Patricia

 

[dadsdeercamp]

I never go past day 25 to much of a chance of an eggsplotion and that is the worse stinky mess in the world of chickens.

 

[BairleaFarm]

Id be done with the eggs. 26 days is longer than I go with them. Dont get discouraged by the stuff went wrong. Theres always the next hatch.

 

[sheila3935]

candle and see if you see any movement. By now you should see them pipped in the aircell. If you see that put them up to your ear and lightly tap the egg. You should hear a clicking or tapping sound. If none of these apply they are gone and I would go ahead and unplug. You can do an eggtopsy and see how far along they got. I like to do that so I can try to figure out what went wrong.

 

[trish5909]

Thanks for the info. I candled them and the air sac actually looks bigger than it did before. I'm unplugging the incubator now but I'm not discouraged. After everything that happened I was expecting NO chicks so I am very surprised & happy with the 7 that we did get! Nature is more resilient than I thought. Now I just have to worry about keeping the little ones happy & healthy!!!

Good luck to everyone else who's waiting for hatch day!