Hatching time

[McSpin]

I've read where it can take 10-24 hours for a pipped egg to hatch. So, is the 21 day incubation until the egg pips or is it until the bird emerges from the egg?

 

[BeckyLa]

It's until the egg pips. Though most folks leave the eggs in till day 25 for the sake of those late bloomers.

 

[kstaven]

yes ... it can take 24 hours for the chick to externally pip. Internal pip (air sac) usually happens on day 20 if temperature and humidity have been ideal for your eggs.

External pip is on day 21 for most and then there are sometimes those that take a little longer to develop. Those could be a few days behind. If you have hot and cold spots in an incubator it spreads them oput even more.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I've had 2 hatch this morning that showed no pipping as of 2:30am this morning. Of those, 1 was hatched and running around by 7am. There are 2 others that have been pipped since early yesterday morning, one with a little progress, the other with no visible progress. They are still rolling and peeping though.
I had been wondering about average pip to hatch time, but now I see that nothing is really 'average' with hatching. Out of 4, I've had super-fast pip to hatch all the way down to super-slow. Today is day 19/20 for my eggs. If you figure the 21 days is up until the external pip, then these 4 of mine are early birds by 3 or so days.

On a side note: None of the eggs I purchased through the mail have pipped or shown any signs of life.
My first hatched (3rd pipped), was from my own flock.
The second hatched (4th pipped) was from a friend locally. The two others pipped are also from my friends flock.
I am curious to know whether shipped eggs typically take longer to pip/hatch than non-shipped. Any opinions- or maybe this is just coincedence?

(Hovabator with turner and fan and perfect temps/humidity -no spikes/drops- throughout incubation. Little Giant still air for hatcher.)

 

[kstaven]

If they started hatching on day 19 and 20 then I would be double checking thermometer accuracy. The temperature was a little to high. Should be 99.5 at egg level in the fan forced you are using.

If the temp was a little high the membrane in the egg could be a little tougher for the chicks to break through. So watch the ones that aren't making progress closely.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I thought the temps could have been too high as well, but i've got 3 different types of therm's in there and of course, none of them agreed with each other. I've just gone with an average of the three. Up to 7 hatched now- still no shipped egg signs of life.