How long after I see cracks and hear chirps will they take to hatch

[tonibadgerschicks]

Hi

I have some quail in the incubator. These are my first hatching eggs and I am a bit confused. We are on day 19 and about 24 hours ago I noticed all of the eggs (5) have cracks in. Since then I hear chirps and constant ticking as they peck but the cracks are not getting bigger.

Is this normal? What should I expect next and after how long should I expect it?

I am worried because I have 4yr old twins and today found that they had been lifting the lid on the incubator. I cant measure the humidity becasue there is no reading (very simple childrens model)

Thank you

Toni

 

[sjarvis00]

If you can still here them chirping they should be ok. you may want to try to raise the humidity some. After they crack their shell(pip) , then they should start to zip it (go all the way around the egg shell cracking it open to pop the top). It shouldn't take them more than a day to get it done. They will get tired and take breaks. So long as you can here them chirpping they will encourage they others to hurry up.