Will the rest of my chicks hatch?

[chickenbarn25]

I am incubating a dozen eggs, three never grew, but 5 have already hatched. Today is day 22, and the other four show no signs of cracks. I candled them, they all have chicks in them. Do I just leave them be, and will they hatch? How long do I wait before I throw the eggs out? Thanks

 

[ChickenHeartedHen]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[gimmie birdies]

can you put up a pic of your candled egg?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Hi, welcome to the forum from Louisiana. Glad you joined.

I am incubating a dozen eggs, three never grew, but 5 have already hatched. Today is day 22, and the other four show no signs of cracks. I candled them, they all have chicks in them. Do I just leave them be, and will they hatch? How long do I wait before I throw the eggs out?

Short answer, wait two more days.

Long answer. Are you sure you are counting the days right, that is a common problem on here? An egg doesn't have a day's worth of development the instant you put it in the incubator, it takes 24 hours for it to have a day's worth of development so you say "one" the day after you start them. An easy way to check your counting is that the day they go into the incubator is the same day of the week that the 21 days are up. If you started them on Tuesday, the 21 days are up on a Tuesday.

Not all eggs hatch on 21 days for many different reasons. It is not that unusual for eggs to hatch as much as 2 days early or 2 days late, whether in an incubator or under a broody hen. I use both an incubator and broody hens. With both I've had hatches totally over with within 16 hours of the first one hatching, and with both I've had hatches that stretch out well over two full days pushing close to 72 hours from the first one hatching to the last one hatching. One that I specifically remember is one chick hatched fairly late on a Monday. Nothing happened for close to 24 hours and a couple of eggs pipped just before I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning 16 more chicks had hatched. Each hatch is different and you never know how they will go.

I don't know if any of those four eggs will hatch but I'd give them 2 more days to try.

 

[Finnie]

I am incubating a dozen eggs, three never grew, but 5 have already hatched. Today is day 22, and the other four show no signs of cracks. I candled them, they all have chicks in them. Do I just leave them be, and will they hatch? How long do I wait before I throw the eggs out? Thanks

I usually leave them in the incubator until I no longer see signs of life when I candle. However I will add that these late ones rarely hatch.

I think of it kind of like popcorn in the microwave. Some will be first, then the great majority will all go rapidly, then the stragglers will go one by one until that peters out and what’s left is like the unpopped kernels.

Might as well give them extra time. When you think it’s time to throw them away, you can make a small hole in the air cell and shine the light inside to see if it’s still alive. But if they aren’t moving vigorously when you candle them, they probably don‘t have the energy to make it out alive no matter what you do.

Good luck!