early hatch?

[pintail_drake2004]

Hi folks. My wife and I sat 35 eggs at approx. 4pm Apr 1. On Apr 11, I candles and culled 9 unfertilized leaving us with 26. On Apr 19, we hear one peeping, and we have a chick by 4pm. The rest started to hatch on the 20th. Now we have about 20/26 in the incubator hatched out, with a few more pipped. I have been busy with the side business and my regular job, so I have not been monitoring the temp/humidity as closely as I did the last time I set eggs. I know the humidity has fluctuated between 20-80% depending on when I added water, and the temp between 98-101*. Could the fluctuations in temp and humidity caused some to hatch early? I thought 21 days was pretty consistent with chicken eggs. I normally count the day I set the eggs as "day 0" and was anticipating the eggs to hatch on the 21-22 of April. Should I count the day I set the eggs as day 1?

 

[MGG]

Hi folks. My wife and I sat 35 eggs at approx. 4pm Apr 1. On Apr 11, I candles and culled 9 unfertilized leaving us with 26. On Apr 19, we hear one peeping, and we have a chick by 4pm. The rest started to hatch on the 20th. Now we have about 20/26 in the incubator hatched out, with a few more pipped. I have been busy with the side business and my regular job, so I have not been monitoring the temp/humidity as closely as I did the last time I set eggs. I know the humidity has fluctuated between 20-80% depending on when I added water, and the temp between 98-101*. Could the fluctuations in temp and humidity caused some to hatch early? I thought 21 days was pretty consistent with chicken eggs. I normally count the day I set the eggs as "day 0" and was anticipating the eggs to hatch on the 21-22 of April. Should I count the day I set the eggs as day 1?

Always count the day you set them day 0. I get fluctuations too, it's not a big deal, the hen for sure would have fluctuations. I don't think they sound early. Seems perfect to me.

 

[MGG]

Every time I hatch chickens they hatch on day 19 or 20. I've never actually had any on day 21. I have however had several late bloomers hatch on day 26.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

Oh, ok. This is only the 2nd batch we've hatched in our incubator. That's good to know. Last time, I scooped all the chicks out on day 21, and left the others in the incubator to hatch and got a few late ones 24hrs later.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

So, We had more eggs in the incubator than I thought! 27 have hatched, one more have pipped a 1"x1/8" line around the middle of the egg, but he has been like that for nearly 10 hours now. After counting the chicks and remaining eggs, we had 31 eggs in the incubator total. I assume the one that is ALMOST hatched will make it out of his shell this morning, so 28/31=90% hatch rate. I'll take that any day!!!

 

[MGG]

So, We had more eggs in the incubator than I thought! 27 have hatched, one more have pipped a 1"x1/8" line around the middle of the egg, but he has been like that for nearly 10 hours now. After counting the chicks and remaining eggs, we had 31 eggs in the incubator total. I assume the one that is ALMOST hatched will make it out of his shell this morning, so 28/31=90% hatch rate. I'll take that any day!!!

Awesome! Great job! Let us know how many hatch!

 

[pintail_drake2004]

28 fluff balls.

 

[MGG]

28 fluff balls. View attachment 2102267

Awww! Congrats! What breeds are they? Beautiful babies

 

[pintail_drake2004]

They are barnyard mix. Hens are BO, BR, RIR, Ameraucanas, Black Australorps, and/or Easter Eggers. The Roosters are Either BR, or a Red Ranger (meat bird that had beautiful form, and is around 2yr old now). We plan on butchering the roosters and keeping the hens.

 

[em_dawson]

28 fluff balls. View attachment 2102267

I must be losing my mind. Didn’t you only have 26 fertile eggs?