How to Tell if Overdue Eggs are Still Alive

[Arya28]

We filled our incubator with about 30 eggs. We had our eggs in upside down (the direction book was wrong) and fixed them on day 9. The next day we could tell a couple died and we took those out. We are on day 24. We had two hatch today, one hatch yesterday, one hatch the day before that, and one hatch on day 21. We have a bunch of eggs left and there are no pips!! We are candling them, the air cells are big and healthy. How can we tell if they are still alive?? Could they still hatch? One we had just hatch didn’t have the yolk absorbed all the way, she absorbed it a couple hours after hatching. Could that mean they are just developing slower?? Thanks in advance!

 

[Arya28]

The air cells have definitely grown a LOT since we candled them before lockdown on day 18!

 

[JaeG]

You will be able to see if the chick has pipped into the air cell (internally) when you candle them - there'll be a little moving shadow beak wondering where all that light is coming from. The air cell develops a bit of a slope to it if they are close to internally pipping. You may hear them tapping inside (if they are ready to start hatching) if you hold the large end of the egg up to your ear. I've found that if a chick dies a clear space develops under the air cell and the shadow of the chick looks blotchy and lumpy. So if they look very full then hopefully they are still alive. You can keep candling them while there are no external pips but try to not move the egg too much from how it was lying in the incubator as the chick may get confused and try and turn around.

 

[sylviethecochin]

They may just be hatching at weird times. I've read of weirder things happening (on here.) And your hatch is already staggered. They might just be developing weird.

I'd just wait. You aren't going to want to throw any eggs away right now because you're not sure whether they're alive or not (My fully-formed chicks will sometimes sit still for hours after pipping. Could be alive, could be dead, I have no way of knowing)

Wait until tomorrow and then candle again. If they're dead, it'll likely be the ones that were smaller earlier, and there will be a cloudy fluid on top of the chick (under the membrane.) If you crack the egg it will be yellow. It's gross. But this fluid takes some time to show, and you might as well give it a day.

 

[savannahRoos22]

That is so sad and crazy, all those different hatch times is really confusing!I hope so badly the rest of your eggs hatch! I love JaeG's and sylviethecochin's reply. Also, have you tried putting them in warm water to check for movement? With no external pip of course.

 

[Arya28]

Ok we definitely aren’t going to throw them out right now!! One of the eggs has a bunch of clear fluid under the dark spot (the chick) towards the pointy end of the egg. Does that mean it’s a dud?

The rest look good, I think! Big sloped air cells, no clear fluid and big huge dark spots. It does seem to be a bit of a staggered hatch so we are still hoping they are ok! Maybe we will try the float test by tomorrow night if no signs of pipping...

 

[Arya28]

It seems weird to me that THAT many eggs showing good signs of development would just not hatch, so hoping they do! Fingers crossed... the ones that have though seem super healthy!

 

[sylviethecochin]

Ok we definitely aren’t going to throw them out right now!! One of the eggs has a bunch of clear fluid under the dark spot (the chick) towards the pointy end of the egg. Does that mean it’s a dud?

The rest look good, I think! Big sloped air cells, no clear fluid and big huge dark spots. It does seem to be a bit of a staggered hatch so we are still hoping they are ok! Maybe we will try the float test by tomorrow night if no signs of pipping...

Good luck!

How's that Spitzhauben of yours doing, by the way?

 

[Arya28]

Good luck!

How's that Spitzhauben of yours doing, by the way?

We found she’s been hiding lots of eggs for about four days, conspiring with the other hens to stash them from us! She is on 21 eggs! She’s not even that big but she’s covering them all!! We moved her and the eggs into a bucked laid down so she is more protected and warmer

 

[Arya28]

She has been taking about half of all of the eggs every day, we thought they just cut back due to cold temps!