need reassurance and patience - first time hatch

[mamahen82]

Hi, I have 30 eggs that are due to hatch today. 13 were under broody hens and brought in and combined with the incubated 16 eggs on day 18 after I discovered the hens had scaley leg mites.

Today so far 5 eggs have pipped although none completely through the shell - only a raised little cracked bump - is that normal? I don't have alot of faith in my incubator and don't feel I ever got an accurate humidty reading seeing as it always measured below 40% at the highest, even with tonnes of water droplets on the top window. Today (I probably shouldn't have opened it) but all the water droplets started falling on the eggs occasionally so I wiped the window and increased the ventilation. Candling at day 15 showed air sacs on the normal-small side. I never candled the eggs under the hens.

anyways, at what point should these pips turn into something more? One was last night sometime in the middle of the night, 3 were around 7am this morning, and 1 was in the last few hours...right now it is 6pm. I'm way too stressed out about this all!

thanks in advance,

 

[kvmommy]

I'm not very experienced, but I've had cracks/pips take 2 days. Pipping takes a while...but zipping, once it starts usually is faster.

 

[Tuffoldhen]

Droplets on the window means the humidity is high. Pips start out as raised bumps where the chick is trying to crack the egg with his egg tooth. It can take 24 hours or longer from those little pip marks to them zipping out of the shells.

 

[ItsAZOO32]

Thanks!! I am going through this same thing!! I have 4 that have pipped and only 2 showing signs of trying to zip. It's been almost 11 hours so I was starting to stress too

 

[debilorrah]

Gosh I have had hatches go on and on for three days. Frustrating too when the first one comes out on day 19 and the last one on day 22.

 

[mamahen82]

thanks for the reassurance everyone. Still antsy but somewhat less stressed about it all running amock.

debiraymond, or anyone else experienced for that matter - it sounds like I leave all the chicks in then until I am confident that any that haven't hatched are not going to? I hvae 30 eggs in a small incubator, so if some hatch tonight, but others not for two days....do I just leave them all in there? I have a brooder ready to go.

thanks again. this community is an awesome support.
- ps - I am blogging about this adventure - linked in my sig below, pictures and updates will be on there, I appreciate any input here or in the comments there too if you notice something else I wrote about that I should be doing differently. It's all new to me and I tend to jump in with both feet and then learn-in-a-hurry...which keeps life interesting to say the least.

 

[Arielle]

Here's some good wishes that all is going well!! Just reading your posts has caused me high anxiety, rapid breathing and general concern----about your chicks! GL

 

[mamahen82]

eek - now I'm worried again!

But I guess at this point whatever will be, will be.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Usually I manage to find a period where there is no pipping. And then I remove the chicks. This last hatch, however, I had pips the ENTIRE time and every time I would shine the flashlight in there to check for pips I would get a bunch of chicks that ran for the light.

And do not assume no more will hatch. My last hatch, obviously a strange one, one day 22 I was candling the remaining eggs, when one peeped at me. Candling I could see the beak moving. Popped it back in bator and 30 minutes later I had a chick. A full day behind the rest. Same eggs from the same seller. You just never know.

 

[mamahen82]

just an update - we've had 13 hatch healthy so far and a few more working on it...so not the world's greatest hatch rate, but way better than I was thinking things were looking a week or so ago!