Author Topic: Incubated 21 days and still no sign of eggs hatching... (Read 4123 times)

DCBBGB · « **on:** February 28, 2016, 09:18:20 am »

Hi everyone,

I put eggs in my incubator 21 days ago and I still have no sign of any of them cracking their shell (it has now been 21.5 days...)

My questions is: has anyone experienced a late hatching and had a positive outcome?

Thank you

devonlady · « **Reply #1 on:** February 28, 2016, 09:35:09 am »

Tap lightly on the shell of each egg with a fingernail, if there are live chicks in there they will cheep at you!

congerchamp · « **Reply #2 on:** February 28, 2016, 10:01:42 pm »

What eggs are they? Did you candle the eggs after 7 day's to make sure that they were fertile. If you hold them to your ear you should hear them. Another way is to put eggs one at a time in bowl of still Luke warm water and you should see movement.no movement then probably dead they should float pointy end down.

Steph Hen · « **Reply #3 on:** February 29, 2016, 07:59:26 am »

I'd be wary of doing anything at this stage. And wouldn't open the incubator, move them or put them in water.

If they've been incubated a bit cool, they will hatch a bit late.

The eggs are either about to hatch, chicks are dead, or eggs were never fertile. I'd leave them alone under hatching conditions, and wait another few days. If they're in there, they will start hatching. Otherwise they won't.

My record for late is 26 days. 3 out of 8 pipped. 2 out of three were weak. One weak one died. 2 out of the three that hatched grew up to be healthy laying hens. One of these is still laying a great lot of eggs four years on. So I wouldn't write them off! (This was a trial run, I hadn't understood the importance of the thermometer/thermostat being as close to the top of the eggs as possible - it was a cm above top of eggs, so whole incubater ran cool.)

Sometimes it is possible to help them out of the shell, but it is not a good idea.
I only do this if they have popped and I can see that the inner membrane has dried out (typically a later hatching chick, when I've lifted out the main mob of chicks, and the draft of cool, dry air shrink wraps the membrane on the chick.) in which case, I run a sink of hot water, take a very slightly damp tissue and holding egg above sink, use tissue to rehydrate membrane. It's a fairly bad idea to start removing shell. Give them a day in their shell like this before picking off any shell, to make sure all blood and yolk has been adsorbed by chick.

Stick a towel over the whole incubator (with a hole cut in it so you can see through the window) if you want to mess with eggs inside, this way you limit drafts.
Next time, candle them at about a week (don't worry about opening the incubator prior to hatching, mummy hen gets off the nest, so eggs are ok with being cool for a half hour or so. In fact they can get stone cold for hours and still hatch! (Had hen go off the brood after about 10 days, she'd been off about 6hrs, I slipped under another broody and most hatched. Moral, don't give up on them

. )

Sorry this is a bit long and rambling, good luck with them.

Steph Hen · « **Reply #4 on:** February 29, 2016, 08:06:05 am »

*pipped*. (You don't want them to pop! Which people say rotten eggs can do. But I've never known this to happen, and the only rotten eggs I've had (Rhode Island reds from thainston mart) STANK so bad after a week! I could pick out the individual duds to remove them.

oor wullie · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2016, 07:45:38 am »

For some reason that I haven't discovered we find that eggs hatch around day 24. I guess it is something to do with the incubator or the climate in our kitchen (where the incubator is). Even with in batch there can be quite a bit of variability - most recently the last egg to pip was 2 days after the first had hatched.

That being said it is rare for me to get more than 50% success so I must be doing something wrong.

Steph Hen · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2016, 08:05:32 am »

I'm not an expert, but having made this mistake myself, where in the incubator is your thermostat/thermometer? I now like to tilt it down so it's about 1cm below the top of the eggs. (Mine is a still Air, I'm sure if you use a fan that is completely different). I still find it quite hard to believe that there can be such a steep temperature gradient within 8cm or so.

People say they work best in a room with a constant temperature/humidity - maybe as you suggest, your kitchen fluctuates? good luck with your next batch.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #7 on:** March 02, 2016, 08:47:08 am »

Quote from: oor wullie on March 02, 2016, 07:45:38 am

For some reason that I haven't discovered we find that eggs hatch around day 24. I guess it is something to do with the incubator or the climate in our kitchen (where the incubator is). Even with in batch there can be quite a bit of variability - most recently the last egg to pip was 2 days after the first had hatched.
That being said it is rare for me to get more than 50% success so I must be doing something wrong.

I think the temperature in a kitchen (assuming you cook in it and don't eat out or have microwave meals all the time) would fluctuate very considerably. We keep our incubators in an unheated, North-facing brick extension where the temperature varies very little and the day-to-night change is very gradual.

mintytwoshoes · « **Reply #8 on:** March 02, 2016, 04:06:42 pm »

Hi
Definately wait a few more days - we have had chicks successfully hatch a few days late. It would be such a shame to disturb them now if they are about to hatch - leave well alone is my advice just make sure temp and humidity are correct for hatching. Hope you get some healthy chicks.