12th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-Along

[goldbean]

No worries, the blood is because it likely pipped a blood vessel because it's upside-down. When you see a pointy end pip it can technically take up to 48 hours (though I've never had one take this long) but longer is expected. Normally a chick will make and internal pip into the air cell and it can take up to 24 hours for you to see the external pip, and then up to an additional 24 hours from external pip to zip. So in the pointed end of the egg they are making the internal and external pip in one go and it's expected to take longer.

Ok. Thank you so much! All your help is very, very appreciated. I'm just a little freaked out because we've never had a chick hatch that has pipped on the wrong side.

--goldbean's older daughter

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Ok. Thank you so much! All your help is very, very appreciated. I'm just a little freaked out because we've never had a chick hatch that has pipped on the wrong side.

--goldbean's older daughter

It happens sometimes! It's not usually something to be too terribly worried about. I just watch to make sure they don't get stuck once they start zipping. I would say I've had to help maybe 3 out of 20ish times that I've seen it. I hatch Silkies a lot and they seem to do this more than most other breeds, I think it's because of those big vaulted skulls making it difficult for them to rotate in the egg. Anyway, they almost always hatch just fine on their own!

This is what you would see if the chick gets stuck. They start to zip and then stop and make a lot of noise or start repeatedly pecking at the same spot and stop zipping. When this happens I just open the air cell end (like in the image), use a q-tip to apply antibiotic ointment without pain reliever to the membrane to make it translucent so you can see the blood vessels. If all of the blood vessels are absorbed then I help the chick out but you're still only seeing a pip without a zip so there's nothing to do yet, if at all.

Just remember that if they can breathe then you have plenty of time and it's almost always better to wait.

 

[Peep_Show]

Hmmmm.... Normally several of the eggs in the hatcher are overacheivers and out a day early, with all eggs done early on the 21st day. This batch is rife with suspense. There's one teensy tiny pip that I can see out of the 9 eggs.

 

[Peep_Show]

Very hard to count as they go wild when I shine a light onto them, but I think there are 40-50 quail so far!

Baby quail are frantic. They're like popping corn and hard to count
.
When we hatched local quail from ravaged/abandoned nests (Gambels) they all hatched within 90 minutes. Kind of cool that nature has that mechanism for survival in the wild.

 

[BenlynFarm]

Woke up to two little ones! And 2 others hatching now! So one of these eggs was blue and labeled as an Isbar egg. The chick looks like an Isbar but has feathers on its feet. I’m guessing it’s not a pure breed as I was told the other one is a little darker and doesn’t have feathered feet. Also came from a blue egg. Still excited for hatching day!

 

[cfremder]

Just put my 9 into lockdown. Now, we monitor humidity and wait for the peeps

 

[Derangedplanet]

When I first hatched a chicken egg 2 weeks ago I was so stressed when things would pip and take 12+ hours for action. But on the other hand, I was used to hatching quails and those things will pop right our consequences be damned. I've yet to lose any of my chicks that pipped or hatched. Unlike with quail I usually expected to wake up the day after hatch to grab 1-2 out of the brooder.(out of groups of 30+, chicks who didn't absorb their yoke completely) and the occasional pop that never zipped. I'm lucky. I have 24 babies in my house already to take out my hatching anxiety on. 4 need to leave today/tomorrow tho so that I actually have space for the new babies

 

[CSolis]

EE pip is making progress and 2 of Prince and Mara's (BCM) eggs have pipped.. I'm doing great! Tomorrow is day 21.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Another sleepless night over here. Chicks seem determined to hatch through the middle of the night, lol! I gave up around 5am and decided to go ahead and clean the brooder so I can move the new chicks to a nice clean space even though there are still 2 Polkie chicks that are 1 week old in there. I figured the longer I waited to clean the brooder the better it would be for the newcomers, lol.

I think we're at 5 Marans hatched and 1 Olive Egger so far!

 

[Anne02]

My first duckling is hatched, and the other egg that made it to lockdown is pipped!