Javas - Day 17.5 and I have pips and 1 zipping!

[NapsWithChickens]

I have a batch of mottled java eggs from onthespot (she's awesome!) and I got them out to candle them before setting them to hatch.... Based on my notes, day 18 isn't until tomorrow, but I was too eager to wait so I decided to candle them this evening...

Yowza! I almost dropped an egg when it began chirping at me! And it had already broken a little hole in the shell! Imagine if I had waited until tomorrow ~ I might have had little chickies trying to walk the minefield of my egg turner! ~gasp!~

So here's the question - do javas hatch earlier than 21 days? I would have sworn not... I have olive eggers from onthespot that I put in at the same time and those don't appear to be nearly as far along....

Thoughts?

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Maybe a hen was keeping them warm for a while before shipping and onthespot didn't notice? Maybe they were already developing.

 

[NapsWithChickens]

I'll have to ask her... but I don't recall her saying that....

Puzzling...

 

[Cindiloohoo]

They would almost had to have been partially incubated somewhere down the line to get this result. As far as I know Java's are just chickens...21 days. It is so odd! Although I have had some do the same that I didn't think had been "pre-cooked" at all and they hatched a few days early.

 

[NapsWithChickens]

I had some trouble stabilizing the temp and humidity when I set the eggs in the second incubator for hatching and I feared that I had loss the chicks that started to hatch. I finally got the humidity right, went to work out, and when I came back: first java chick!

I'm leaving the incubator closed - so as not to mess with it - but once I have a handful of chicks, out they come!

My first hatch of 2010... I am such a hatching addict!