25 days in. Chicks alive but not hatched. What do we do?

[Sunlightatlast]

I don't know if there is anyone on here that is experienced at hatching chicks but I could really use some advice if so please? We have had 4 fertilised eggs under a broody hen for 25 days now. None have hatched so we decided to take them out from under her as everything I've read suggested if they haven't hatched by now they won't. We started opening the air pocket end of one egg to double check there were no signs of life and were shocked to find a live chick. Is there any chance of hatching now? If so is there anything we should be doing? We've put all 4 back under her just in case.

No clue but I’m replying to keep you active!

Thank you. I don't think there is much hope of healthy chicks but it'd be nice to know if there is anything we can do to give them a chance.

I would leave them and see, I've only hatched duck eggs in an incubator but they hatched 2-4 days after expected date.

Had it broken through the air cell at all?

Were the veins still very prominent on the membrane?

Did the membrane appear dry?

Do you have an incubator you can move the eggs to?

What breed are the eggs?

Sorry for the multitude of questions.

@Inthedeep it hadn't broken through. The membrane seemed quite dry and tough. I didn't see any sign of veins. The eggs were a mixture of breeds so I'm not sure. It was a normal brown type chicken egg though.

Ok, if you can’t see any veins that’s a good sign it means it’s absorbed the blood. It seems like it may be shrink wrapped. The first thing I’d do to the egg that you’ve opened is if you have any melt a bit of coconut oil (not hot just lukewarm), smear it on the exposed membrane (not thickly). This will moisten the membrane but also show up any viens . If you don’t have coconut oil dampen it with a little water.

I’ve had this happen before and happy to help. There are really good videos on YouTube too.

I’d also candle the other 3 eggs for signs on internal movement.

Also this will seem mad but have you tried cheeping at the eggs, gently tap them too. Chicks will often cheep back at this stage.

@Inthedeep thank you. We've dampened the membrane, and there were some blood vessels we could see once we did that so we've put it back under the hen for the moment. DH tried tapping the others and he thinks there was movement in one at least, so I guess now it is just a case of wait and see.

Did all the eggs get put under the hen on the same day and are you definitely on day 25? If you are and if you see no change by the end of the day, if you are brave enough I’d consider assisting. Sometimes the eggs get shrink wrapped and it’s too tough for them to get out themselves. Definitely watch some YouTube videos on assisting. I had to help 6 chicks of my first hatch this year. No idea what went wrong under the broody, she’d sat before and been perfect, only thing I can think of is the changeable weather. It was really nerve wracking, but all 6 got out successfully (took me hours little by little with each one. Letting them rest then starting again). Once hatched and fluffed up we popped them back under Mum once it was pitch black and she took to them really well. I was lucky I had an incubator though which I could keep the eggs in to rest whilst I worked on other ones and pop them in once hatched.

Good luck and please do ask if you have any questions. I’m by no means an expert but I’ve hatched quite a few chicks both under hens and in incubators over the last couple of years and had my fair share of disasters 😬

Thank you again for the advice. It is definitely day 25 and they did all go under at the same time. The half hatched chick doesn't look good as it was making no move to try and hatch, but was still alive in there last time I checked. There was some blood. One of the others has been heard cheeping, but again not hatching. Definitely need to get an incubator for next time so we have somewhere to put any with issues. This chicken hatched some last year with no problems at all.

This year seems to be a bit of a weird hatching year. I’ve never had a problem with late hatching under hens until this year either. If you want to help, you can still help without an incubator, if you’ve got a beside/desk style lamp you could probably make a good enough brooder. Once hatched they can go back under the hen. It’s understandable though if you don’t feel comfortable doing it. Good luck 😊

Well bizarrely today we had a perfectly healthy chick hatch from one of the remaining eggs! But gutted now as I think more may have hatched if we had left them be. Everything I'd read said they wouldn't hatch after 23 days though. It is lucky we checked and didn't just bin them I guess. I will leave them for a good week after they are expected next time though, just in case.

The one that was shrink wrapped didn't make it. But I think that was just because it was too early.