My first egg hatched on day 21. Then the rest of the chicks hatched in between but today i had 4 more eggs and are almost ready to start zipping and it is day 24! Is this normal? What would cause this to happen? Is it safe for the chicks?
maybe humidity, or temp inside bator, I don't know just guessing but congrats on hatch, where are some pics?
Quote:I would say your incubator had uneven heat. What kind of incubator are you using. It is safe for the chicks, they should be fine, but the chicks that hatched at day 21 may need to go to the brooder soon if they haven't already, but with pipped eggs I wouldn't open the incuabtor.
The ones born before have all been moved to the brooder after they dried off. I am using a Little Giant Still air incubator with auto turner. I have opened the incubator with pipped eggs in there BUT i had too because the chicks that already hatched were playing soccer with the eggs that were pipped and i didnt want anything bad to happen to them. If the incubator had an uneven temperature would the temp have been to low or too high? I kept the incubator at about 101 to 102 the entire hatch because that is what i read to keep it at here on BYC since it is a Still Air
Oh and i guess i did something right because out of 21 brown LF eggs i put in there 12 have hatched and 4 are still pipped/zipping. I also had 9 bantam eggs in there but not a single one has hatched. I also know the bantam eggs were fertile and growing because i candled them on day 17 before lockdown and saw chicks moving inside the eggs. I wonder why none of the bantam eggs have hatched but almost all of my LF brown eggs have hatched?
Fresh eggs hatch the soonest and the older eggs take a little longer to hatch. Possible they way they were collected?
Probably the ones directly under the heating element were the first ones to hatch, and the ones further away were cooler so they are the later ones to hatch. What thermometer are you using? The one that comes with the LG is prettyt much useless, I would use a digital one. Hopefully some of those banties start hatching soon. Good Luck. If you want more even heat, I would add a PC fan, it will distribute the heat better.
I'm intersted to see if your chicks hatched. My first chicks started hatching on day 20, I'm on day 22 going on day 23 and I still see eggs moving around with no pips. I'm hoping they still have a chance to hatch!
A little update: i have had one more chick hatched since yesterday. It has something attached to it i dont think should be there. I think it belongs INSIDE his body but it is attached to the egg it came out of and the chick. It looks like a red ball attached to him. He is still drying off but the thing is still attached to him. Yes i have taken ALL the other chicks that hatched out as soon as they dried off. The only hatched chick in the bator is the one with the thing attached to it. I also still have 3 eggs that are zipping in the bator but they seem to be struggling. They have been in about the same position for 2 days. I even helped one of them zip a little further but it still is struggling. Still, none of my bantam eggs have pipped although i know there were LIVE chicks in them on day 18....