Will I miss the hatch

First timer here. Brinsea mini advance, 7 assorted chicken eggs (the eggs for education set from mypetchicken). I set the eggs on Tuesday morning 2/9. When should I expect the first eggs to start hatching? We suddenly have the opportunity to go on a little trip the weekend of 2/27-28, but I don't want go away and chance missing the little chicks start to hatch. My son has been patiently waiting and it would be disappointing to miss even one of them. Anyone help?

if you have any early ones yes but they should start the 29th(i think this year is a leap year) or the 1st so you should be good.

boymeetschicken said:

First timer here. Brinsea mini advance, 7 assorted chicken eggs (the eggs for education set from mypetchicken). I set the eggs on Tuesday morning 2/9. When should I expect the first eggs to start hatching? We suddenly have the opportunity to go on a little trip the weekend of 2/27-28, but I don't want go away and chance missing the little chicks start to hatch. My son has been patiently waiting and it would be disappointing to miss even one of them. Anyone help?

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chicklover 1998 said:

if you have any early ones yes but they should start the 29th(i think this year is a leap year) or the 1st so you should be good.

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Yup leap year. Day 21 would be the first. So unless you have day 19 hatchers, you should be good.

And

Thanks!! It was hard to figure out what day 21 would be.

Since you are a first timer... remember, a pip doesn't mean ready to hatch... a pip means an egg full of yolk and not ready to hatch until another 24 hrs or so. good luck!

So....does this mean I should be expecting a pip on 3/1 or so but hatching might be a day later on 3/2?

boymeetschicken said:

Thanks!! It was hard to figure out what day 21 would be.

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You start your count 24 hours AFTER set. An egg needs (on the average) 21 days of INCUBATION and you don't have one day of incubation until it's been in there one day.

gimmie birdies said:

Since you are a first timer... remember, a pip doesn't mean ready to hatch... a pip means an egg full of yolk and not ready to hatch until another 24 hrs or so. good luck!

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Actually,according to the Cobb's chicken embryo development chart, chicks generally start absorbing the yolk at day 19 and finish by 20 (again, on the averge). It's not unusual to eggtopsy a DIS egg that has not pipped but has fully absorbed the yolk. However, the vascular system between the egg and chick does not shut down until after the external pip and often takes more than 12 hours to do so.

boymeetschicken said:

So....does this mean I should be expecting a pip on 3/1 or so but hatching might be a day later on 3/2?

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Chances are you'll see pipping on Feb 29 and hatching on the 1st. Depending how the temps have been in the bator you could see pipping and hatching earlier or later. My bator runs slightly high over the average during incubation, I usually see pipping and hatching on days 19/20 with a couple stragglers on hatch day. I have found, and am going to pay more attention this hatch season, that the earlier they pip the longer they take to go from pip to zip and the ones that actually pip on hatch day are out withing a few hours. My chicks in my last hatch that pipped on day 19 took almost a full 24 hours before they were ready to zip. I had three that waited until early on day 21 to pip and they were zipping within 8 hours of pip.

Easiest way to count the hatching day (all things being equal- temp and standard size eggs) is to remember the day you set the eggs. If you set on a Sunday then 21 days later is a Sunday too.