To hatch on side or upright...that is the question

[Saltysunshine79]

Hey guys & gals. So I started with a tiny, very cheap incubator for my pekin duck eggs. It says to obviously put the pointy end down in which I did till about day 24. Now with that being said I heard some people actually hatch their chicks and never put them on their side? Is this ok to do? I ask because it seems my humidity in my eggs may have been to high and their air cells arent exactly where I would like them to be. Would putting them back upright do any damage or could it possibly help them to pip more upright in the correct spot....help please I've never done this before and I dont want to lose my babies!! And help is greatly appreciated

 

[Neggative]

i would do it on the side, and i like the shakespear lol!

 

[JaeG]

The biggest issue with small air cells is that the duckling (or chick) pips internally then runs out of oxygen before they get a chance to pip externally. You could wait to increase the humidity until you know that they have started to pip internally (candle to check them but when you do keep each egg in the same position it is lying in in the incubator) to try and get the air cells just a little bigger. Another thing you could do is, once they have pipped internally, you could make a safety hole. This thread, though in the Goose forum, applies to all incubated eggs and has some very valuable information in it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/goose-incubation-hatching-guide-completed.491013/

It helped me out a lot when I was hatching Muscovy eggs.

Let us know how you get on.