What is going on? Day 26 hatching?

[jennyandhannahschicks]

Here's the time line... on March 26th i went out to our broody hen and got the eggs she had been sitting on (i dont know how many days she was sitting on them). I candled them and selected 3 eggs that had a dark shadow and threw out the ones that didnt look like they had chicks growing. None of them did. All of the three i chose did have chicks. We put them in an incubator on March 26... yesterday April 16th two of the eggs hatched and today the 17th the last one is peeping from the egg. Here's why im confused... i think those eggs i candled where at least 5 -7 days old right? The timeline is as if i candled eggs that hadnt started to develop until that day! what do you think happened here???

 

[Island Coppers]

jennyandhannahschicks​

Welcome to BYC.

I think you kind of have to trust the time line unless your incubator is running on the cool side. If the eggs were 5 to 7 days old they must not have been developed very much otherwise they certainly would have hatched sooner. Congratulations on the new chicks.

 

[Susan Skylark]

Hatching a few days late is common with lower incubation temps, broody or incubator, an external thermometer can help the incubator, you’ll have to negotiate with the hen on your own!