Chick piped and then didn't try hatch for 24 hours that normal????????

[Mr.Grantly]

This is our first batch we have ever hatched and I have a few questions. Why did 2 chicks pip early (24hrs) and then not try and hatch tell the 21 day was something wrong that made them pip early?. How many days over 21 should I leave the eggs before opening them up to see what went wrong. Thanks for all the help

Grant

 

[farmin'chick]

My experience is that every hatch is a little different. I have chicks with hatch day tomorrow, first one hatched and out of shell last night. Several pipped (chipped a little place in the shell) on Saturday, and a half dozen have hatched fully today. One chap has pipped, and zipped (opened a crack in the egg all around) and is still sitting there. So far, the ones I've had staying in the eggs still needed to finish absorbing yolk or absorbing the blood from the tiny veins. Hatching is hard work!!! Sometimes they just rest. As long as your temp and humidity are okay, don't open the bator, leave them to hatch. A chick CAN last for 3 days without food or water when first born, they get their food and water from the yolk they absorbed -- but most of us can't stand to wait until all have hatched before we start sneaking them out. But WATCH that your humidity stays up, and your temperature.

I leave my unhatched eggs in the incubator at incubator temps and humidity for 3 days after the last one hatched. Rather than say, day 21, day 25, etc -- each hatch's rate depends on the conditions during incubation to a certain extent...so if you wait until 3 days after the last one hatched, you're pretty sure to be allowing for your time variations due to incubating conditions.

 

[Penturner]

Several thoughts come to mind as to why they piped early.
First early is not good, late is not good. Not necessarily bad as in being fatal but both indicate problems in the incubation. to high of temperatures will cause a chick to develop faster, even to the point of to fast. low temp will cause them to develop to slow. your two early pips may have simply been in a warmer spot in the incubator longer than the other eggs.
Second are the eggs a mix or all from the same hen, eggs bought through the mail or??? different eggs will produce different results determined by many factors.

Pipping is not a voluntary action on the part of chick, it is a physical reaction of the chicks body to higher level of Co2 inside the egg that results in the beak piercing the shell. early pip could be anything from a chick being overly reactive to Co2 to having developed to fast. when it is all said and done it is most likely just what happened will never be known, but it does indicate that some adjustment does need to be made. It is also just as likely that this something will only be corrected with experience and attempting many incubations. that you will never really know that you corrected it specifically you will only realize that your hatches are becoming more successful. There are many many factors to keep in balance and incubation is at best a matter of trying to juggle far to many balls at once and never dropping to many of them at any given time.