Late hatching-due to power failure?

[Petie03]

I'm hatching eggs for the first time, using an incubator and I'm on the evening of day 22. All silkies (shipped eggs) and on day 19 there were 7 eggs with movement. I had one hatch the evening of day 20 and 2 hatch this morning (day 22). The other 4 eggs don't have an external pip and I'm not hearing anything. I've been reading a lot of forums and I'm wondering what I should do tomorrow on day 23.

A couple things-we lost power for a few hours on day 3. Could this contribute to the late hatch? I've been keeping temp between 99-100, humidity in the 40s during incubation and up to 60-65 during lockdown day 19. Also after the first chick hatched, humidity spiked to 77. When I woke up 6 hours later, humidity was 34. I immunization bumped it back to 65.

So do I continue to just wait-or should I candle the remaining eggs tomorrow? I'm worried about shrink wrapping the eggs, but also would like to get my chick out that hatched over 48 hrs ago.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Hi! Take the chick out and candle the eggs. It's totally ok to open the incubator to get a chick out.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some people have obviously never shrink-wrapped a chick by opening the incubator. It rarely happens, even if you open the incubator a fair amount, but I assure you it can.

That does not mean I never open the incubator during hatch. I understand there is a risk but it is small. If I have an emergency I'll open it and take my chances. I don't consider "Oh, I want to hold them" to be an emergency. One time an egg that had pipped got sleeved inside a half shell from one that hatched earlier. I opened the incubator and took care of that. None of them shrink-wrapped that time. I do not casually open the incubator during hatch, knowing there is a low risk, but if I feel a need I will.

A chick absorbs the yolk before it hatches. It can live off of that yolk for over 72 hours after hatch. I'd use 72 hours after the first on hatched as when you have an emergency.

Taking those eggs out and candling will not help them hatch. That is just to find out if they are still alive. I don't see them causing any harm if you leave them in and give them a chance. But when you take those other chicks out would be a good time to candle.

I don't know how long the power was off or how cool those eggs actually got. Things like that generally do not affect when the eggs hatch, at least not much. The danger is that the embryo will be killed if they get too cold for too long. Your others were alive recently so they were not killed by the loss of heat. It is the average incubating temperature over the incubation period that affects if they are early or late. Short extreme spikes hot or cold do not have that much of an effect as long as it doesn't kill them.

Good luck!

 

[SmiYa0126]

How's it going? Anymore babies?

 

[Susan Skylark]

Do you have an external thermometer? I had one incubator running 105 and another running 98 according to an external thermometer, but each incubator assured me it was 99.5. A cold incubator can delay hatching by days (quail hatch day 16/17, my 98 degree incubator hatched them day 19/20/21). If you have to open the incubator, add water to spike the humidity (wait a few minutes) then make sure you are ready to act fast, maybe even have someone else open while you act. Open, grab chicks or egg, and close quickly (also make sure no chicks are going to get caught in the lid when opening or closing). Watch humidity for a minute and add warm water if it doesn’t spike again. I’d give the eggs a couple more days then consider water candling anything that hasn’t pipped (make sure there are no holes or cracks or chicks will drown!). If you see movement, continue incubating, if it doesn’t move it is dead.

 

[Yardmom]

Try light candling first