How long from pip to zip?

[Mama Austranought]

Worse than a watched kettle! I just cant keep away when I see movement! The incubator went in the spare room for the last hatch - that was a little better! All the best keep us informed.

 

[gfcm]

And this is exactly what I'm doing now. Waiting, worrying, but NOT opening. I've had three pipped today. The 1st was at 3:20pm. The last was about 6:15pm. Chirping now and again, but not much else. Not even rocking...(sigh)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Day 20 plus 9 hours and the 5th just hatched, 1 pipped and one of the welly eggs is rocking.
My incubator is at the far end of a torturous trek through the basement which isn't even accessible from inside the house. I still seem to get down there hourly.

 

[gfcm]

Quote:
lol I would too! You wouldn't be able to keep me away!

Did you stay up all night? I tried. I was up mostly, but after days with not more than 40 min at a time, I fell out for a bit! Feel better today! This 1st hatched is so loud and verbal! I think I'll call her Baby Gabby. I already have a hen I call Gabby. Prolly her egg!

So how many you up to now??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Quote:
I have 9 hatched out of 23 at the 20.5 day mark.

I got two bits of 3 hour sleep one early one late.

I added 2 eggs on the second day, now I'm thinking that wasn't a good idea.

Not sure how I'll get these early bloomers out without affecting things.

Why do they insist on walking on the ones just emerging, just like they're trying to strangle the competition.

 

[suzc]

I'm in the same boat - 4 eggs on day 21/22 - 1 pipped a few hours ago and I can hear chirping but no progress - other 3 still looking just like eggs

 

[WannabeMothergoose]

I'm wondering the same thing. I have 10 eggs in Bator on day 21 one pip early morning around 7 am it's now 3pm. Nothing else is happening. Or has happened. No other ones have pip either. Its very nerve racking it's my 3rd time trying to incubate. No luck.

 

[Pollmadoll]

It is so eggciting I have one chick that has externally pipped out of the four eggs . I feel like an expectant parent

 

[Pullety]

The answer is a several minutes to many, many worrying hours. The many hours is the usual situation. That bump is a pip, by the way.

During the final hatching stage, the chick needs to absorb the yolk, dry up certain blood vessels, and go through some more changes before it can safely come out of the shell. Some chicks do a lot of this between internal pip and external pip. These usually hatch pretty quickly after external pip. Some do most of this after external pip. These are the ones we worry about. Some even zip an come out before completely finishing the process. Many of these make it fine, but anywhere along this process, bad things can happen. If you help a chick before it is ready, you can easily kill the chick.

There is no clear deadline when you know everything is hopeless. I once shrink-wrapped a chick when I opened the incubator during lockdown to handle another problem. The chick had externally pipped but was then stuck. About 36 hours later when I opened the incubator to take the rest of the chicks out, that chick was still alive. I helped it since it was my fault it was in trouble. That chick did fine.

I don’t understand how you can tell a chick has internally pipped without taking it out and candling it... which, I thought I wasn’t supposed to open the incubator during lockdown...?

 

[Pollmadoll]

I'm in the same boat - 4 eggs on day 21/22 - 1 pipped a few hours ago and I can hear chirping but no progress - other 3 still looking just like eggs

The same thing happened to me but I always wait until 24 hours later after the external pip so you know the chick has absorbed the yolk. After that I assist . I have four healthy two week old chicks . I assisted two of them the others popped out overnight