Water test with my eggs

[tina27]

Hi there just a quick question
People are saying i can do the water test after day 21 with my eggs.
They say it will tell me weather my eggs have developed or not, is this right
If so how do i do it if anyone can please help me that would be great. I need to know details if i e how to tell if the airbag is developed or has died

I put my eggs in the incubator on the 10th of April at 7 p.m. and today is day 23 and no sign of Tipping or hatching so I was just wondering how long how do I leave it. Many thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me the water test is a last-ditch emergency test before I toss all the eggs. Day 21, not even close. But day 23, yeah it may be time if you are not seeing movement or hearing any chirping when you tap the incubator.

If you put the eggs in a bowl of water they will float. If the egg wiggles on its own there is a live chick in there, put it back in the incubator. If the egg does not wiggle, there is nothing alive in it at that age. If the egg has pipped, don’t ty this.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

To me the water test is a last-ditch emergency test before I toss all the eggs. Day 21, not even close. But day 23, yeah it may be time if you are not seeing movement or hearing any chirping when you tap the incubator.

If you put the eggs in a bowl of water they will float. If the egg wiggles on its own there is a live chick in there, put it back in the incubator. If the egg does not wiggle, there is nothing alive in it at that age. If the egg has pipped, don’t ty this.

Xs 2 I'm not a big fan of the float test.

And

 

[tina27]

Thanks guys for the help but have just on the water test and all of the eggs have sunk to the bottom

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sorry, Tina, but that doesn’t make sense. Something is wrong. Let’s see if we can figure out what.

As an egg is stored, let alone incubated, it loses moisture. That’s why the air cell gets bigger, the egg loses moisture over time. A fairly fresh egg will sink to the bottom. An older egg will stand on end on the bottom, air cell end up. When it’s lost enough moisture the entire egg floats.

So the eggs did not lose enough moisture during incubation. What was your humidity levels during incubation? The only thing I can think of to get that result was that your humidity levels were really high. What can you tell us about humidity during incubation?

Did you try candling your eggs at any time during incubation? That’s one way to check air cell size. You can try candling some now to see what you can see inside.

Amy, can you help me out, I’m kind of lost on this one.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Sorry, Tina, but that doesn’t make sense. Something is wrong. Let’s see if we can figure out what.

As an egg is stored, let alone incubated, it loses moisture. That’s why the air cell gets bigger, the egg loses moisture over time. A fairly fresh egg will sink to the bottom. An older egg will stand on end on the bottom, air cell end up. When it’s lost enough moisture the entire egg floats.

So the eggs did not lose enough moisture during incubation. What was your humidity levels during incubation? The only thing I can think of to get that result was that your humidity levels were really high. What can you tell us about humidity during incubation?

Did you try candling your eggs at any time during incubation? That’s one way to check air cell size. You can try candling some now to see what you can see inside.

Amy, can you help me out, I’m kind of lost on this one.

If it sinks, it's supposed to be a dud, quitter, non viable. I'm not sure the science, but I often wondered if they sunk after death because of CO2 build up, which is heavier than oxygen or if the little bodies give off gas after a certain amount of time after death that eats up the oxygen. Of course it could always be from not enough moisture loss like you said. I would definitely start troubleshooting with humidity and if possible for the op to do eggtopsies to see when it quit and if they are fully formed if there is extra moisture in the shell.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of that doesn’t make sense Amy. Any gas is going to be lighter than water, it doesn’t matter if it is CO2, oxygen, or plain air. When I candle at day 18 and remove the clears, they are noticeably lighter than the ones with developing chicks in them. Still, life is not always logical. Those eggs sank.

Amy, do you have a link to a chart that shows Tina what she should be looking for if she opens eggs to see when they quit? I don’t have one.

Tina you can still candle the eggs and see what you can tell about their development. What you are looking for is to try to determine when they quit developing, if they started developing at all. An alternative is to open the eggs and look at the embryo to see its stage of development. It’s a lot easier to figure out what went wrong with the incubation if you know something about when they quit or if they started developing to begin with.

And tell us a bit about the incubation. Which incubator and humidity especially.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

A lot of that doesn’t make sense Amy. Any gas is going to be lighter than water, it doesn’t matter if it is CO2, oxygen, or plain air. When I candle at day 18 and remove the clears, they are noticeably lighter than the ones with developing chicks in them. Still, life is not always logical. Those eggs sank.

Amy, do you have a link to a chart that shows Tina what she should be looking for if she opens eggs to see when they quit? I don’t have one.

Tina you can still candle the eggs and see what you can tell about their development. What you are looking for is to try to determine when they quit developing, if they started developing at all. An alternative is to open the eggs and look at the embryo to see its stage of development. It’s a lot easier to figure out what went wrong with the incubation if you know something about when they quit or if they started developing to begin with.

And tell us a bit about the incubation. Which incubator and humidity especially.

You know, I've read the float tests how to a million times on a million things and they all say a sinker is no good, a floater that moves is good, a floater that doesn't move is probably not good, but I've never seen one that actually explained the why of it.

Yes, I have the Cobbs development chart...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Amy, thanks for the chart. I hadn’t seen it but have now saved the flip chart version. I’d like to know why an egg that has been incubated for three weeks could still float, mostly because of what that might tell us about the incubation. But the important thing for Tina is that if they sink they are no good.

Tina, I hope you are still with us. To me the important thing is to figure out what went wrong so your next hatch will be more successful.