Eek! They're pipping early again!

[Debbienmousey]

Today is the 25th day for my 27 guinea eggs in the incubator. I was removing them from the turner, refilling water, and adding sponges when I noticed 2 of the eggs already had pips in them!

1 has a nice sized pip although it hasn't pushed any pieces of shell totally away yet. The other has 1 piece of shell away towhere I can see the membrane. The membrane is white not clear, should I be worried? Before I put the sponges in the temp was about 99 F and the humidity was about 89%. I filled all the water troughs almost all the way and I have 2 good sized sponges in. I didn't put the thermometer with humidity back in because I normally don't have a thermometer in while they hatch.

By the way, my incubator is a 1583 Circulated Air Picture Window Hova-Bator.

With this batch we numbered the eggs so we can record when each individual egg started to pip and when it hatched/died. My last batch of guineas also started to pip on day 25, is this normal or do you think I'm doing something 'wrong'?

I'll try and get some pictures on here later. Wish me luck with this hatch please

 

[stu3796]

I don't know if it's normal or not...apparently not... but my guineas just about always start hatching on day 25. My last batch they were all done on day 26. They're all doing well and running around no problems. When I incubate guineas they are done early, but when they're under a broody they typically go the 28 days. I use a 1588 Genesis.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Hmm, odd. All my keets from the last hatch are also doing fine. I guess the temperature in the incubator is higher then the temperature under a hen, so they hatch sooner?

No more progress yet on these two eggs.

Thanks stu

 

[stu3796]

I'm curious as to what others have found too. My temperature was right at 99.5-100 all the time... so it wasn't TOO hot. They're all doing fine and I had 30 out of 35 hatch this time, so I'm not about to change a thing.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Yeah, my temperature was 99-101 during the whole incubation, but closer to 100 most of the time. I'm hoping I didn't have too much humidity during the incubation, because I've heard you can 'drown' chicks/keets that way?

Update on the pipping eggs: It's be over 24 hours but both keets are still going at it. Egg #1 is zipping, and will be done soon I hope. Egg #19 has done virtually nothing, but I can still see the beak moving under the white membrane (I'm not sure if it's dry or what) None of the other eggs have pipped yet. This is day 26.

Edited to change egg number. It was actually egg #19 that started pipping second.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Update:

I am somewhat discouraged. Egg #1 is still pipping, it's about half way "un-zipped" and doesn't seem to have done much of anything for the last 2 hours. He's been pipping since 12:27 pm yesterday.

Egg #19 has done almost nothing. I believe he's still alive but I don't think he'll be hatching

(This pic is of egg #19 yesterday, he's only done a little more today)

Egg #2 has started pipping and is doing well, but yet again I can see the membrane, it's white, but I'm not sure that it's "dry" or "hard". Should I be concerned about this?

Pictured here are eggs #35 and #40

Egg number 20 is also pipping, but has a very tiny pip and I didn't get a picture of it.

Here's a pic of my incubator set up

Temp should be about 100. Humidity should be at least 90% but should be closer to 95% since I added to sponges which you should be able to see.

Please, if you have any advice, your input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Debbienmousey]

Yay! Egg #2 hatched! I am so happy

I think he's a pearl, maybe pied.

I'm worried about egg #1 though. He's not moving much or peeping much. I'm hoping the keet from egg #2 will encourage egg #1 to hatch.

I'll try and post pics tomorrow, hopefully there'll be more keets!

 

[The Wolf Queen]

More pics pweez