From pipping through air sac to pip through shell, HOW LONG?

SundownWaterfowl

Crowing
14 Years
Mar 16, 2008
9,764
103
456
Southern Columbia County NY
After the chicks pip the air sac, how long do they have to get a pip in the shell before they suffocate? How many hours? So if a chick pipped the air sac at 9am today, when should there be a hole in the egg?
 
Last edited:
I asked the same thing myself a while ago. Some said the shell is porous and they still get air. I don't buy it, had 2 suffocate yesterday because they pipped the air cell but couldn't pip the shell cuz they were too big to maneuver their way out. I also think it depends on how big the air cell is. I don't like to wait more than 12 hours, but have been trying to keep hands off. I have some La Fleche in the hatcher now that I REALLY want all to hatch from but am finding it hard to sit on my hands, especially after losing my 2 showgirls yesterday
hmm.png
. On the other hand I had an Ancona that I candled real quick yesterday because I switched it to my other hatcher and it was pipped into the air cell (about noon) and it JUST pipped the shell. So I will be interested to see if anyone has any scientific data on this.
Good luck with your eggs!
Krista
 
I havent had luck with my shipped silkie eggs. So I really want these 4 to hatch. I guess Ill wait till 6-8pm tonight and then candle and put a small hole in so they can suffocate.

The day before yesterday I had to help out 3 of my silkies that couldnt get out themselves.

So hopefully they pip the shell themselves, that way I could just help them out tomorrow if they need it.


ETA: Also, I've been reading that when Silkies are hatching, if they have a large vault, sometimes they cant even move around to pip the shell, or they pip the shell and cant "zip" out.
 
Last edited:

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom