First Time hatching eggs, egg sacks too small

[luvmychickenz]

I am so excited (relieved). Being Ms. Meddler, I couldn't help myself and went and candled only some of the eggs b Checking air sacks found that they have had a big improvement! Saw movement in eggs, too. But that is not the best part- I saw a little head moving in one of the sacks, put my ear to it and-music to my ears-it was peeping!!!! I also heard it tapping on its shell. I am floating on air!
So now going to start increasing humidity and go on official lockdown. The air sacks have increased so much that I believe we are just going to let them remain lying on their sides. I hope I am not making wrong choice but our guts are telling us to just leave them be now.
We will continue praying and monitoring. It is going to be a long night, as I am not sure how much I will be able to sleep.
Thanks so much for support and encouragement. I will keep you all posted.

 

[luvmychickenz]

If there were no pips, I'd look too, but I am a meddler anyway, so.......lol

I don't recall if you said it was a forced air incubator or still?  I am hoping forced air.

Yes. It is forced air. I should have clarified.

 

[chicapee]

That's great news. It can take 24 hrs or so between internal and external pips and another 24 from external pip to zip. So get a good night's sleep. Cos you won't get much over the next couple of days. Sweet dreams.

 

[luvmychickenz]

Didn't realize it was 24 hours between internal pip and external pip. Guess, nothing left to d but be patient. Thanks so much! Have a wonderful night.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I am so excited (relieved). Being Ms. Meddler, I couldn't help myself and went and candled only some of the eggs b Checking air sacks found that they have had a big improvement! Saw movement in eggs, too. But that is not the best part- I saw a little head moving in one of the sacks, put my ear to it and-music to my ears-it was peeping!!!! I also heard it tapping on its shell. I am floating on air!
So now going to start increasing humidity and go on official lockdown. The air sacks have increased so much that I believe we are just going to let them remain lying on their sides. I hope I am not making wrong choice but our guts are telling us to just leave them be now.
We will continue praying and monitoring. It is going to be a long night, as I am not sure how much I will be able to sleep.
Thanks so much for support and encouragement. I will keep you all posted.

That is great!! Yes, if the air cells have grown to a good size I would keep them laying flat too. I hope you have a wonderful hatch!

That's great news. It can take 24 hrs or so between internal and external pips and another 24 from external pip to zip. So get a good night's sleep. Cos you won't get much over the next couple of days. Sweet dreams.

That is so true!! lol I don't sleep during hatch- or much during incubation either...lol

Didn't realize it was 24 hours between internal pip and external pip. Guess, nothing left to d but be patient. Thanks so much! Have a wonderful night.

It can. It can take 24 hours to go from external pip to zip too. Or it can take a few hours. My average of pip to zip is generally 12-18 hours. I try not to worry too much until 18 hours. If they aren't working on getting out by 24 I usually start to assist. I don't know the average for my internal to external pips.

 

[luvmychickenz]

Went to bed about 2:30 chickie could be heard peeping. We put sponges in the bator to regulate humidity which has been a huge effort. Finally got it to about 65%. At 4:30 my husband said humidity 60% and chick had externally pipped. I woke up at 8, the humidity down to 45%. I have been trying to regulate with sponges but it has been an effort, with humidity going as high as 80%. I ended up removing sponges and putting a little hot water in canals. Seeing if that will work better than sponges which keep drying out.
I still can hear him peeping every so often but his external pip has seemed to only have chipped off a little she'll and membrane intact. Is that normal? How long do I leave it before trying to open a little hole for air?
So far nothing with the other eggs.

 

[ourrune]

Hi all! Have been reading and want to follow. Also i have my first hatch soon and i am curious.. what is internal pip and external pip and zip and all of that other language??? lol i have been working on my own styrofoam incubator with fan water bottles rocks pan of water with sponge and 25watt light and i have the temp at 99.5 and humidity 40 percent i have holes up top and holes all around bottom and have that cooler inside a mini nonworking fridge. im going to set them tomorrow if all stays stable. What do i need to know about the pips? If anyone doesnt mind my poking in here

 

[luvmychickenz]

This is our fist hatch, but some things I can tell you from learning from the awesome people on BYC (although I may not explain it as well). Internal pipping occurs when the chick punctures his air sack and begins to breath air inside of the egg. External pipping occurs when the chick pierces the egg shell in attempt to reach external air. This is the beginning of the hatching process. Unzipping occurs as the chick pecks a line along the air sack (I believe) if it is properly positioned. This is how he is separating the egg in order to hatch.
What is so cool is that you can actually hear the chick peeping inside the egg once they penetrate the internal air sack (internal pip).
The incubator regulation has been driving me crazy. AmyLynn and Chicapee have been God sends to me and are so very knowledgeable. AmyLynn is known as the guru of styrofoam incubators.

I am so excited for you! I do have some words of advice that will save you a lot of stress and possible heartbreak (I may be a little too attached): find out everything you need to know before you set your eggs. Doing it right from the beginning will prevent you from going through what I am, in the end.

May your hatch be blessed with 100% success.

 

[ourrune]

This is our fist hatch, but some things I can tell you from learning from the awesome people on BYC (although I may not explain it as well).  Internal pipping occurs when the chick punctures his air sack and begins to breath air inside of the egg.  External pipping occurs when the chick pierces the egg shell in attempt to reach external air.  This is the beginning of the hatching process.  Unzipping occurs as the chick pecks a line along the air sack (I believe) if it is properly positioned.  This is how he is separating the egg in order to hatch.
What is so cool is that you can actually hear the chick peeping inside the egg once they penetrate the internal air sack (internal pip).
The incubator regulation has been driving me crazy.  AmyLynn and Chicapee have been God sends to me and are so very knowledgeable.  AmyLynn is known as the guru of styrofoam incubators.

I am so excited for you!  I do have some words of advice that will save you a lot of stress and possible heartbreak (I may be a little too attached):  find out everything you need to know before you set your eggs.  Doing it right from the beginning will prevent you from going through what I am, in the end.  

May your hatch be blessed with 100% success.

thank you so much! Youre so sweet and kind! Cant wait to hear how your hatch comes out you have been uplifting because you show that with mistakes and worries theres still success because we are on top of it making sure its all correct every minute. Also now i know to add an egg carton to raise humidity if need be! Lol! Im in fl and the humidity is bad here also but inside the house has been hard to get just right. So how you know that they have internel pip is if you hear them inside? What if some get stuck when hatching do we put them in a warm bath to help them out? I read something like after 12 hours if they are still stuck to somehow help them but how? So much info for newbies to try and grasp trying to learn from others mistakes but in the end we will inevitably make our own. :/ so you think your humidity was at 80 percent the whole time correct? What did it say it was at? Scary you cant trust any of these things! God bless you and your little peeps. Keep us all updated on how it goes.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi all! Have been reading and want to follow. Also i have my first hatch soon and i am curious.. what is internal pip and external pip and zip and all of that other language??? lol i have been working on my own styrofoam incubator with fan water bottles rocks pan of water with sponge and 25watt light and i have the temp at 99.5 and humidity 40 percent i have holes up top and holes all around bottom and have that cooler inside a mini nonworking fridge. im going to set them tomorrow if all stays stable. What do i need to know about the pips? If anyone doesnt mind my poking in here

Welcome to hatching!!

This is our fist hatch, but some things I can tell you from learning from the awesome people on BYC (although I may not explain it as well). Internal pipping occurs when the chick punctures his air sack and begins to breath air inside of the egg. External pipping occurs when the chick pierces the egg shell in attempt to reach external air. This is the beginning of the hatching process. Unzipping occurs as the chick pecks a line along the air sack (I believe) if it is properly positioned. This is how he is separating the egg in order to hatch.
What is so cool is that you can actually hear the chick peeping inside the egg once they penetrate the internal air sack (internal pip).
The incubator regulation has been driving me crazy. AmyLynn and Chicapee have been God sends to me and are so very knowledgeable. AmyLynn is known as the guru of styrofoam incubators.

I am so excited for you! I do have some words of advice that will save you a lot of stress and possible heartbreak (I may be a little too attached): find out everything you need to know before you set your eggs. Doing it right from the beginning will prevent you from going through what I am, in the end.

May your hatch be blessed with 100% success.

You did an excellent job at explaining.

thank you so much! Youre so sweet and kind! Cant wait to hear how your hatch comes out you have been uplifting because you show that with mistakes and worries theres still success because we are on top of it making sure its all correct every minute. Also now i know to add an egg carton to raise humidity if need be! Lol! Im in fl and the humidity is bad here also but inside the house has been hard to get just right. So how you know that they have internel pip is if you hear them inside? What if some get stuck when hatching do we put them in a warm bath to help them out? I read something like after 12 hours if they are still stuck to somehow help them but how? So much info for newbies to try and grasp trying to learn from others mistakes but in the end we will inevitably make our own.

so you think your humidity was at 80 percent the whole time correct? What did it say it was at? Scary you cant trust any of these things! God bless you and your little peeps. Keep us all updated on how it goes.

The biggest and most important piece of info I can give you is check your thermometers/hygrometers for accuracy. Many a hatcher has had a messed up hatch because they trusted a faulty thermometer, including me and mine was brand spanking new. I won't run with less than 2 thermometers in my bator (usually I have 3 lol).

My second piece of info is humidity. You have to find what works for you when it comes to humidity. Not everyone uses the same level of humidity to the same success because there are so many independant variables. The incubator, the eggs and your environment plus your hatching habits are all going to effect what humidity level you need. The nice thing is, it's not extrememly hard to figure out if you monitor your air cells. If you are interested, this is the method I use: http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity I never recommend over 45% humidity the first 17 days. (Unless the hatcher is in a high elevation or the desert or your air cells tell y ou otherwise.) There are a few that successfully hatch at a higher humidity, but for the majority (especially in styro bators) a low humidity incubation provides better results.

Another great read for first timers is the hatching 101 page here on BYC: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

I wish you the best of luck.