today is my 22nd day

[jb1jord]

Hi,today is my 22nd day of incubating light sussex chikens, i havnt ever had much success with hatching. Yesterday the eggs stopped rocking so i candled them to see if they were still alive and they were, then i looked tonight and they are slightly rocking, so how much longer should it be until they hath?, If it is any help, they are imbred

 

[kidcody]

are they making sounds? Maybe your humidity isn't right they should aleast be trying to come out (little cracks). I hope everything is alright. Have you double checked the temps (meaning with a different thermo) Usually mine are trying to come out on the 19th day and if by day 22 I know something is wrong good luck, let us know!

 

[jb1jord]

Quote:
i am wondering if it could be because they are inbred, earlier today i think i might have heard a faint chirp

 

[kidcody]

probably not, do you mean father & daughter or brother & sisiter?

 

[jb1jord]

Quote:
brother and sister, is there a difference?

 

[kidcody]

yes, you probably shouldn't let brother & sister hatch (I know people do) but genetically you are asking for problems (birth defects) as far as breeding father to daughter it is done all of the time and it can sometimes strengthen the qualitys you are looking for. If not even one chick has hatched I'm sure its not birth defects (inbreeding) cause even so they should of hatched. You could very carefully crack the egg and see if the little chick has tried to break thru the outer sacs, perhaps they have tried, you have to be very slow and careful. If you see any blood you have to stop, and put the chick back.

 

[jb1jord]

Quote:
the thing that i dont understand i this is my 3rd time incubating and i have only had 1 chiken hatch, and that died 6 days after, it is realy anoying

 

[kidcody]

If you feel you have done everything correctly with the incubator. (sometimes its a lot more difficult then you think) Then perhaps it is the mating of the brother and sisiter, my friend is breeding these rare chickens and is also breeding brother to sister and so far there has not been a problem, but there could be down the line. I talked to a genetic major and he said that with chicken breeding brother to sisiter isn't that alarming and that birth defects wouldn't be in the first generation but the you would start to see defects in the 2nd and 3rd generation. Which is usually feather quality, feather patterns, egg quality, beak defects etc. Try hatching eggs from someone elses flock and see how you do.

 

[Atasmom]

I find it very interesting what you have to say about inbreeding. I have had chicks hatching for about three days now. I set them all in the incubator at the same time, but they don't seem to be hatching together. The problem I'm having is that about a third of them can't seem to stand or walk. They fall over backwards and can't keep thier legs under them. Any idea if this is a genetic problem? I hatched about two dozen eggs Black Star and Buff Orpington hens, not sure what the rooster is. He came from my sister.

 

[kidcody]

If your chicks are not hatching roughly within 24 hour period it sounds like your incubator has different temperatures in side. It does happen. Some of the chick hatch on time because there done (full term) and some that take longer because the temps were lower so they need more developement time.
These chicks that stay in the incubator longer seem to be weaker and slower in developing and sometimes only last a few days. Did you help any of these chicks out of there eggs? I've had chicks take longer then others to walk and grow fully into beautiful normal chickens. When you say the leg they can't keep there legs under them, are the legs nicely folded underneath them? or are they spread out in front? what?