First timer...and really excited!

[chickensRheaven]

End of the line here. Day 20...if I counted right...and one egg is pipping. I am a little concerned as the opening looks bloody...I've had a few issues I am concerned about throughout this process and now - as I read I am really concerned about the humidity. I filled up the water areas at the bottom of the bator just before lockdown. Do you guys think that this is enough humidity? Could this explain the bloody appearance around the spot? We (the kids and I) are sooo excited! ....in other news...I have hen due any day too to hatch....man those broody hens are a pain....I hope this hatching thing turns out!!! Yay so excited...waiting part = stressful!

 

[Kedreeva]

The blood is possibly from the chick pipping through a vein. The inner membrane is run through with a network of blood vessels which are still attached to the chick- if it presses through the membrane over the top of one of these... blood! A lot of times this isn't really an issue as the bleeding stops pretty quickly on its own, but sometimes they will pip through a big vein and it won't stop bleeding. So if there's just a little blood and its not going anywhere, you're probably ok. If it's leaking out still, probably a problem.

Fingers crossed for you and your hatch!

 

[chickensRheaven]

Thanks.That makes complete sense! How long does it take for them to get out? I am so anxious I have gone back to the bator like a hundred times...another has pipped though! I tell them I can hear them and to come on out. Am I the only (crazy) one who talks to the pipping egg?.....somehow I think not....

 

[Cattitude]

I had one pip like this yesterday, and she is just fine. She took about 15 hours from first pip to hatch.

I know the feeling about running back and forth between my computer and the incubator! I had to make some trips into town for supplies, and the first thing I did (even before unloading frozen food) was check on the eggs!

Hope you have a great hatch!

 

[pgpoultry]

Hi,

Take it easy, some can take at least 24 hours to get out, and only intervene if you absolutely have to (leave the incubator shut....they don't need food or fluid for the first day or two)

I usually keep encouraging the chicks...you know "come on, you can do it".....I've heard broody mum encouraging them, too.....so no, not crazy, just a little obsessed like many of us.

Good Luck for the hatching,

Sandie

 

[justtoni44]

Hi,
You are O.K...I am like a little child at hatching time..................Watching, then calling my husband to ask if he see's progress or am I seeing things.
He is so patient.............Keep us posted.
Also, I have read several times that the chicks are o.k. in the incubator for 3 days.they live off their yolk sack.
It is hard to leave them.....but I hope you know you can kill the other eggs from opening the incubater.
OH, wish I could have found a different word than kill.
Bottom line for me is it is hard to trust mother nature and the natural process and not intervene.

Good luck.It is worth the wait.

 

[featherz]

I hatched last weekend and it was my first hatch ever - I ran up and down the stairs all day long! I want to hatch more! (but I can't yet, sigh..

)..

 

[AppleyardAlley]

I had horrid luck with hatching eggs that I ordered this spring despite my constant incubator temp, auto turner and regulated humidity. I was going to give up on my dreams of breeding. My sister felt bad and gave me a dozen eggs from her flock of mutts to prove I wasn't awful. Today I went down to take out the turner and start lockdown (day 18), and there was a chick in there with another one pipping! (I called her to tell her about the early bird, and she said that she might have taken it from a broody who had started it for me. ) I'm nervous and excited now. Maybe it's not me!

 

[burquechick]

Yes, I've read it can even take up to 48 hours to hatch. 24 is not uncommon, but 4-6 is the norm.

 

[Kedreeva]

@ Appleyard: I'd bet 99% chance that it's NOT you. Shipped eggs have really awful hatch rates compared to eggs you pick from your own hens or pick up yourself from the breeder. I mean, just think of all the trials they must face along the way: heat or cold, x-rays, shaking, bouncing, falling.... and then you have them taking 2-3 days of this (usually, unless you pay even more) which puts them closer to the points in time where they begin to lose viability since being laid... I'm surprised shipped eggs ever hatch for anyone!