# HELP... Day 23 of Incubation



## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

Its day 23 of incubation. I pulled all the chicks out yesterday. and still had one pip out the side of the egg. It was getting weak so I went a head and pulled it. It died some time during the night and is still in the incubator, but there are a couple of others piping now. How long do I give them. I had a egg explode on yesterday and that was the nastiest mess I have ever seen or smelled. Do I get the dead chick out and leave the others? Do I candle the remaining few eggs to look for life? Whats the best plan of action? This is the batch that started hatching on day 17. I had 5 on day 17, 1 day 18, about 20 on day 21.


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## Becka (Mar 15, 2008)

If they are pipped and trying to hatch, leave them alone. I always keep the incubator running at least 5 days after hatch date, and have had many hatch within that time. They might pip, get tired, then start hatching in a day or two. Don't toss the pipped eggs unless the chick inside is dead. I had en egg pipped for 4 days and thought for sure it was dead, only to have it hatch as a healthy chick.

By the way, this is a critical time to keep the incubator closed, because if they are pipped and you open the lid, the moisture will get removed and the chicks will get shrink wrapped in the shell and die.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

I opened up yesterday and got the chicks out. They had been in there for a day and had the incubatie full. I did add some wet paper napkins and misted with hot water. I just pulled the dead chick. There are gnats in there and let's just say it was nasty and leave it at that. One of the piped chicks is out and seems to be doing well. Most of theses are Easter Eggers and so cute.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

Oh and it is so humid here I didn't add any water to the incubator until lock down on day 17 when i had 5 chicks surprise me when I went to check the temperature. They hatched in the egg turner. It sure was surprising to look in and see little fluffy faces looking at me.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

Yeah, I don't think you had much choice there, you had to get the dead chick out.

I hate stressful hatches...wish they would all just 'popcorn hatch' those are a delight.


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## Guest (Aug 20, 2013)

Tiempo said:


> wish they would all just 'popcorn hatch' those are a delight.


That's what an incubator full of quail eggs does.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

The twenty that hatched together looked like that two. I have nine eggs left to go so maybe some of them will do something soon, but I'm at around 50% hatch rate for my first time so I think that is pretty decent.


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

K Epp said:


> The twenty that hatched together looked like that two. I have nine eggs left to go so maybe some of them will do something soon, but I'm at around 50% hatch rate for my first time so I think that is pretty decent.


I didn't realize it was this challenging. I just took delivery of my eight egg incubator and will be popping them in there in the next few days. My first effort.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

This was my first time incubating and I started with 44 eggs. I candled at 1.5 weeks and it was great you could see the chicks moving around like crazy at day 15 they had pretty much filled up the eggs and was harder to see move. I pulled 12 then that had clearly stopped growing. I'm still watching the last 9 eggs. All I can say is you do not wont one to blow up it was awful. The workroom still reeks. I just touched the egg and booom!!!!


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

K Epp said:


> This was my first time incubating and I started with 44 eggs. I candled at 1.5 weeks and it was great you could see the chicks moving around like crazy at day 15 they had pretty much filled up the eggs and was harder to see move. I pulled 12 then that had clearly stopped growing. I'm still watching the last 9 eggs. All I can say is you do not wont one to blow up it was awful. The workroom still reeks. I just touched the egg and booom!!!!


:yuck: That sounds really awful. I hope that doesn't happen.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

K Epp, Sounds Like You have done good for your first hatch. To work on the problems you are having with this hatch----Did you use fresh layed eggs or was some of the eggs a week or two old? Did the egg that exploded have a formed chick in it? Did you re-lite them the day you took the turner out? I have never had a egg to explode in the incubator. I always lite mine on the 12th day and the 18th day when I remove the turner. 

But I am going to add this----I have several of the styrofoam Incubators but these Incubators in these pictures are the best I have Ever Owned!


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

Lol... I have one of tjose now with 10 week old chicks that she is still taking care of. Some of the eggs were older. The exploding egg had a fully formed chick that pretty much filled the egg. It smelled do bad I didn't look at it much. The last chick that hatched today is dried off, but not looking good. I candles at 10 and on day 15. I pulled all that hadn't developed or had stopped growing. 12 out of 44 were bad. On day 17 they started hatching so I did not candle. I pulled the turner as fast as I could and locked down. After that I would pull the chicks once a day as fast as I could. Neither of the last two chicks were vacuum sealed to the membrane. I pulled the chivked that died yesterday because it had piped in the middle of the egg and not progressed. It and the chick that hatched today look like they jave something abnormal going on. Since it looks like it is going to die I left it in the incubator. I candled the remaining eggs and didn't see any movement or internal pips at this point I think they are all gone. It smells so bad that I may just cut it off tomorrow and clean it for the next run.


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

K Epp said:


> Lol... I have one of tjose now with 10 week old chicks that she is still taking care of. It smells so bad that I may just cut it off tomorrow and clean it for the next run.


I got 3 of these Living incubators sitting on RIR eggs right now----well one of them was hatching out today. I have to move the mother and chicks as soon as they are all hatched out because the other bantams will fight with her and kill some of her chicks if I do not. I have chicken tractors I move them to and as soon as the chicks start getting some feathers I take the mother away and put the chicks in another place. 

I believe if I were you----I would cut the incubator off and clean it too. I have hatched many eggs in a incubator and have never hatched chicks from the 17th day to the 23 day---thats a new one on me. Makes me feel that you got some spots in your incubator that is hotter/colder or you had a hen setting on a few of your eggs and got incubation started before you put them in----I do not Know, But I feel You still did great!!


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

It is a still air. Next time I'm going with a smaller amount and not using the outside roles. Those first few that hatched on day 17 did nit come from my farm they came from a friends. That could be a possibility, but she had wormed her flock and her daughter was supposed to be feeding eggs back to them. Who knows.... 

That last chick was dead this morning so I unplugged. After candling last night I'm sure they were all dead.


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## Real Hawkeye (Jul 5, 2005)

Fire-Man said:


> K Epp, Sounds Like You have done good for your first hatch. To work on the problems you are having with this hatch----Did you use fresh layed eggs or was some of the eggs a week or two old? Did the egg that exploded have a formed chick in it? Did you re-lite them the day you took the turner out? I have never had a egg to explode in the incubator. I always lite mine on the 12th day and the 18th day when I remove the turner.
> 
> But I am going to add this----I have several of the styrofoam Incubators but these Incubators in these pictures are the best I have Ever Owned!


In the last few years I've had ten Rhode Island Red hens, and not one of them has ever been broody. At one point I acquired three very young Delawares (hardly more than chicks when I got them), and the first spring after they started laying, two of them were extremely broody for several weeks, but I had no rooster at that time, so the behavior wasn't encouraged by me, although I didn't go out of my way to interfere with it too much despite their taking up nesting box space from other laying hens at the time. 

Had I a rooster at that time, I would have encouraged this broodiness and used it to hatch some chicks. The two that I still have from those three Delawares didn't become broody this past spring, so they might be over it for good. Looks like I don't have that option, then.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

My broody is a Australourp. Cochins, Silkies, and Game Hens are known for going broody as well. I just gave eggs to a friend who had a Buff Orp go broody. Write the date on some eggs and leave them in the nest for them. If they go broody remove those eggs and give her fresh eggs also marked. Pull any eggs laid later. ....that's my plan next time. My broody kept stealing eggs and I had to move some at the end to a incubator because she left the nest with the chicks.

Fire Man how do you do it? Also how do you incubate?


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

K Epp said:


> Fire Man how do you do it? Also how do you incubate?


I have not used a incubator in the last 2 years because these bantams raise all the new chicks I have needed---more if I allowed. All my bantams are in my biggest chicken tractor. I get up my eggs daily and If one of the hens decides to set(and I want to allow it) I remove the bantam eggs from under her and I place 2 RIR eggs under her till the next day. If she is still setting I place 8 fresh laid RIR eggs under her---removing the 2 left the day before. This way all the eggs should hatch around the same time. 

If another hen decides to try setting with her in her nest and stealing her eggs----I do one of 2 things----if I want the second hen to set I give her 8 eggs in another nest and place her in it---Usually works---but sometimes they go eat at the same time and get back in the wrong nest---I just put them back in the right nest---they usually get it right in a couple times. Now if I do not want another hen to set---I take the hen and put her in another chicken tractor for a few days to break her then put her back. I Always Check under my setting hens daily and remove any added eggs(easy because all the added eggs are bantam eggs and the hen/s is setting on RIR eggs).

On Day 21 when the eggs start hatching I put some food and water in the nest box and close the nesting box off so the hen can not leave the nest---she is not going to leave anyway while the eggs are hatching(if they all should hatch at the same time). I do this so when all the eggs hatch(that will) I move her and her chicks to another chicken tractor where she will be alone with her chicks. If I was to let her stay in the tractor with the other hens---there will be fights and some of the other hens have hurt some of the chicks----so I do not let that happen any more. The pictures I posted above----all 3 of the hens were setting at the same time in the tractor, but had a few days between due hatching time. I only have 3 nest boxes in this tractor so to stop any problems I moved all the other bantams into another tractor till these hens had hatched, But as each hen hatched her eggs I moved her and chicks as described above. I had 8 RIR eggs under each one --2 hatched all 8 and the other busted one of her 8 about a week in(probably a shofter shell egg) but she hatched out the other 7. 
I only got these bantams to hatch eggs and work in the garden(weeding and feeding) inside the tractor. I did let one hen recently hatch out 8 bantam eggs so I will have some fresh Incubators in the future, We sell most all of the RIR eggs and the Wife and I eat the bantam eggs. I have been selling a few young chicks at the Auction---so I let the bantams hatch out all they want. I can get more for 12 chicks than I can for 12 eggs----at no extra cost to me(no electricity, no adding water, no lighting---etc---LOL).

This is a picture I have posted before of the bantams main tractor in the garden.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

Thanks. Which breed of bantam do you have?


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

K Epp said:


> Thanks. Which breed of bantam do you have?


Good Question----I got them and alot of regular size chickens from a Guy that was getting out the chicken business---I have never asked nor have I ever done and searching to see if I can find out what they are. My Plans were to try and sell them(I got them for free), but I figured out something they can do that saves me alot of time----so I let them Do their thing-----hatch Eggs!


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## libertygirl (Jul 18, 2011)

FireMan - I wanted to thank you for your helpful advise for incubating the eggs our bantam was sitting on when she was killed by something (we think a wild cat). Out of the 9 eggs she was sitting on 2 of them had cracked in the attack, and out of the remaining 7 we successfully hatched 3 in the incubator. Better than a total loss!  

Our bantam was a Japanese Porcelain (very pretty) and she was very broody. Our bantam roo is a Cochin... the chicks have more of his looks, except a lot more lighter color on them. I'm going to attempt to share a picture of one of them. I think it looks rather penguin-ish.... lol


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2013)

Looks like it has the barred pattern. Do you have any barred chickens?


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## libertygirl (Jul 18, 2011)

ladycat, the Cochin roo looks like a barred rock except he has feathered legs and feet, the barred rock bantams don't have the extra feathering.


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## K Epp (Jan 7, 2013)

I have a large fowl blue barred Cochin and she is the sweetest.


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