yikes, what to do?

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Thank you very much Ridgerunner. I actually feel a wee bit calmer now, I will wait ;)....
 
Thanks:)....there are 7 more eggs in with this one, one of the other eggs moved last evening but nothing since....Even if I don't get a great hatch, I will have learned a lot for next time. Best of luck with your eggs.......
 
Ridgerunner said:
Yes, first hatches can be really stressful especially if they don’t go exactly by the book. Problem is, they usually don’t. Each hatch is unique and can go their own way.

The first day doesn’t count. An egg does not have 24 hours’ worth of development 2 seconds or 2 hours after it goes in the incubator. It takes 24 hours for it to have a day’s worth of development so you are really at Day 22. That’s a real common mistake. An easy way to check your counting is the day of the week they go in the incubator is the day of the week they should hatch. If they go in on a Friday, they should hatch on a Friday.

The 2 day thing is just a target, not something set in stone. A whole lot of different things can affect when an egg actually hatches; heredity, humidity, how and how long an egg was stored before it went into the incubator, and just basic differences in individual eggs. A real big factor is average incubator temperature. If the incubator is a bit warm, they will likely be a bit early, maybe as much as 3 days for pip to start. If it is cool they can be really late. I’ve had eggs hatch two full days early under a broody hen and in my incubator. I’ve also had them hatch right on time. That kind of inconsistency can be really frustrating even after you’ve had a few hatches.

Don’t worry about going into lockdown a full day early if you did. That 18 day thing is another target, not an absolute requirement. Lots of people that miscount the days and go into lockdown early still have great hatches.

A lot is going on inside that egg during hatch. The chick has to absorb the yolk, dry up those blood vessels you were worried about, learn to breathe air instead of living in a liquid world, do something with that gunk they have been living in so their down dries nice and fluffy instead of all pasted down, and who knows what else. Some chicks do a lot of this before external pip. These pop out of the shell pretty quickly after external pip, maybe just a very few hours. I’ve had some I never even saw the pip though it may have been hiding down at the bottom. Some chicks do a lot of those preparatory works after external pip. These can take forever, more than 24 hours. These are the ones that cause us all the concern.

With all this uncertainty the hardest thing about all this is knowing when to help if you even need to. If you try too early before it is ready you are likely to kill the chick. If you wait too long, it can die. A lot of chicks aren’t meant to make it anyway, no matter what you do. They have some deformity, maybe internal, that means they can’t live. About half the chicks I’ve helped have died within a couple of days of hatch.

So what should you do? First of all, try patience. You are more likely to cause harm than help at this stage. Go to the Learning Center at the top of this page and study about helping chicks hatch. Different people go by different things as to when to help and have different techniques in helping. At the end of the day you have to make your own decision but reading several different articles on what to look for and how to help can better prepare you.

I wish there was a simple answer to this, but there is not. Good luck!
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This is all excellent advice! I just finished my first incubation and hatch! It was a wonderful learning experience. I had one egg left after the others hatched and I put a whole in the egg to find a live baby in there. I tried to help him but he died and I felt terrible!! Reading your post made me feel so much better. I will now always give a little extra time before discounting an egg or trying to intervene. I have to remind myself that they have lived in that egg for 3 weeks, better to keep them in a little longer then trying to get them out to soon!
 
So, 10 eggs in, one chick out! Very disappointing!.....Now I have an only chick who is very needy ;\.... Darla chirps constantly. I have to hold her or keep my hand in the box to keep her quiet. I have two eggs in the incubator, due to hatch yesterday. One egg bounced around a couple of times but no pip.....Never again! This is my first and last time incubating eggs, too depressing ;(
Thank you Backyard Chicken Family for your advice, it was very much appreciated........;)
 
jotee said:
So, 10 eggs in, one chick out! Very disappointing!.....Now I have an only chick who is very needy ;\.... Darla chirps constantly. I have to hold her or keep my hand in the box to keep her quiet. I have two eggs in the incubator, due to hatch yesterday. One egg bounced around a couple of times but no pip.....Never again! This is my first and last time incubating eggs, too depressing ;(
Thank you Backyard Chicken Family for your advice, it was very much appreciated........;)
Click to expand...
Have you float tested the left over eggs? You may be surprised! If your temps were on the lower end, it could delay the hatch. Can you find a friend for your little one? Put a mirror in the brooder with her for now.
 
Float test ?? I buried them in the garden two days ago. What is the float test? It may come in handy for these last two eggs I have in the incubator ( day 22) ......thnx

P.S.The mirror is brilliant!
 
Will do....I am on day 22... When would you recommend floating them?
 
jotee said:
Will do....I am on day 22... When would you recommend floating them?
Click to expand...
I believe the earliest recommended time is 24 hours after the last chick hatched. Just be careful to keep humidity high in the incubator while taking them out just incase one moves. I've only done it once and when the egg moved I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me (I thought the egg was dead for sure) and then it clearly moved a second time and I knew it was alive.
 

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