Hatching Under a Broody Hen

[stephcraig78]

The biggest problem is I have no clue FOR SURE when they should be hatching. If I do end up candling them I should place them back with the air pocket up then? By my best completely uneducated guess they should be on like day 21-22. Last candling showed very dark full eggs with air sack taking up 1/4-1/3 of the egg. And mom has been sitting constantly on nest for 2-3 days now. Idk sorry to be so impatient. I know there’s nothing to do but wait.

 

[stephcraig78]

She started with 17 and after eliminating the bad ones we have 9 left that were all very close to same development stage. She is in our garage with lots of straw around her, up off the floor in a large cage with a heat lamp a foot or so away just to keep a slightly higher temp in her area. Temperature should be pretty good and fairly constant. Especially since she hasn’t gotten off of them in days.

 

[song of joy]

The biggest problem is I have no clue FOR SURE when they should be hatching. If I do end up candling them I should place them back with the air pocket up then? By my best completely uneducated guess they should be on like day 21-22. Last candling showed very dark full eggs with air sack taking up 1/4-1/3 of the egg. And mom has been sitting constantly on nest for 2-3 days now. Idk sorry to be so impatient. I know there’s nothing to do but wait.

It's easy to misjudge the age of a nest. I found an "oops" nest this summer and estimated the hatch date based on my candling results. I was off by 3 days, which meant the eggs hatched 3 days later than I anticipated. This made the wait even harder!

If you candle the eggs, you'll notice that the air cell is not uniform, but dips down lower on one side of the egg. So, when you put the egg back you'll want to lay the egg on its side, with the air cell dip facing upward. When I candle, I lightly trace the air cell with a pencil. That way it's easy to track air cell growth, and it's easy to see which way to position the egg when I lay it down for lock-down.

I'm still thinking these eggs are close to hatching because the hen hasn't gotten off the nest for a couple of days. That's what my broody hens do, beginning a day or two before the eggs hatch. Then again, maybe she's just comfortable there and doesn't want to move.

 

[stephcraig78]

Ok thank you for putting up with my horrible impatience!! I will wait today and check tonight before bed. If nothing is happening I may candle one last time and make sure to put the air cells like you said. I did notice the dip like you mentioned. So it seems like the signs are pointing towards hatching very soon.

 

[stephcraig78]

Well I just went out to give momma some food and water and heard an unmistakable peeping!! I did a quick check and there’s one baby with a small hole started! I checked all the other with a light and made sure their air cell positioned like you said. I noticed a few others air cells weren’t whole looking like before. Is that the internal pip they do first? Oh I’m soooo excited it’s finally happening.

 

[Arya28]

Well I just went out to give momma some food and water and heard an unmistakable peeping!! I did a quick check and there’s one baby with a small hole started! I checked all the other with a light and made sure their air cell positioned like you said. I noticed a few others air cells weren’t whole looking like before. Is that the internal pip they do first? Oh I’m soooo excited it’s finally happening.

Congrats! That’s awesome!!
Things should progress a lot faster now

I don’t know about the air cells and pipping though. We candled, but have never actually seen the internal pips, so not sure what that looks like.

 

[stephcraig78]

What would you say is the safe time frame for chick to finish hatching? I’ve read a couple different times. 12-24 hours? Figured it will all be over night. The kids were absolutely thrilled and amazed that the egg was peeping. Guess to them it doesn’t seem possible for a living baby chicken to be inside that tiny egg. So happy our first hatch is with silkies. Wonder what characteristics babies will have from silkie mom and sizzle dad?

 

[song of joy]

Well I just went out to give momma some food and water and heard an unmistakable peeping!! I did a quick check and there’s one baby with a small hole started! I checked all the other with a light and made sure their air cell positioned like you said. I noticed a few others air cells weren’t whole looking like before. Is that the internal pip they do first? Oh I’m soooo excited it’s finally happening.

How exciting! I thought it was very close to hatch time! The hen knew it was time.

Yes, if the air cell looks broken, it's probably an internal pip. Sometimes you can actually see the beak poking into the air cell.

At this point, I would not recommend disturbing the hen. During the hatch, the hen's body heat and skin . . . along with escaping moisture from hatching eggs . . . keeps the humidity under the hen pretty high. This will keep the pipping eggs from drying out and shrink-wrapping.

Having watched chicks hatch out in an incubator, I've noticed that the time from pip to zip (for each egg) is usually less than 12 hours, and zipping itself sometimes happens pretty fast (several minutes) unless there's a problem. So, I suspect you'll have multiple chicks hatched out by tomorrow morning. If all the eggs were set at the same time, the hatch would be anticipated to take 24 to 48 hours from start to finish. But if eggs were added after she started incubating, it could stretch out over a few more days.

 

[song of joy]

The kids were absolutely thrilled and amazed that the egg was peeping. Guess to them it doesn’t seem possible for a living baby chicken to be inside that tiny egg.

Believe me, it's not just the kids who are amazed by this. I'm in awe at the wisdom and power of God who designs and sustains life.

 

[stephcraig78]

I didn’t actually place any of the eggs she did it all herself. I just let her go. And yeah i peeked in at her and as soon as I did I heard loud peeps from the first egg. I knew it was at her rear ended and after gently raising her feathers slightly I could see the tiny bump/crack had already grown to about a half in line of cracking. Wish I had her somewhere I could hear the babies to know as was going good. Well hopefully I’ll have babies to tell about in the morning!!!