What is the longest time you have waited for a late hatch before giving up??

[wabbit1964]

What is the longest time you have waited for a late hatch before giving up??How long is long enough? I don't want to go do eggtopsy and kill chicks that are alive but yesterday when the incubator quit I shuffled two incubators of eggs together to make room for the ones in incu 3 to go in incu 2 so I hate to have non viable eggs taking up space that my viable eggs need. I don't want to give up too early but my gut tells me there are no more going to hatch from the batch I am waiting on.

What would YOU do???

 

[Trapper Luke]

I'm in the same boat and interested to find out what people say on this topic! I have quail eggs that are on day 22 of 18 I opened up some of them and they was fully developed but didn't internal pip or nothing. I've got another 10 or so that are on day 19 of 18 today. I did the water test to see if the chicks were still alive on two of the eggs and they were both still kicking in there so now I'm kinda stuck on if I should wait to see if they hatch on their own or help them. If I wait and they don't hatch they'll die for sure, if I help then it could go either way

 

[wabbit1964]

I did the float test too and only some of them floated at the angle that the images suggest a live egg. Most of them stood straight up in the water with only a little bit of air cell part of the shell out of the water. No sounds or movement in the incubator.

 

[wabbit1964]