Turn now or not?

[Northwoodsguineas]

Hello- This is our first post. I'll introduce myself better later, but I have a pressing question. We have two incubators loaded with 80+ purple guinea eggs that came from 4 hens we started with last year. We quickly bought incubators when a weasel killed two of our sitting hens. We apparently miscalculated how long the hens sat on the eggs before we took over. We stopped turning eggs on what we thought was day 25. Turns out we stopped on day 20. On day 32 a pip appeared and today (33) we have 5 healthy keets and maybe a dozen new pips.

We have a lot of eggs that haven't done anything yet. We are wondering if giving them a turn at this point would do harm or help?

On what we thought was day 28 we placed a baby monitor inside the incubator to see if anything was alive. We were relieved when we heard occasional sharp clicks and a few peeps. We read that the clicks are the chicks beginning to ventilate there lungs.

Today it sound like a popcorn machine in there with a lot of chirping. The chirps from the hatched keets are a lot louder than those still in the shell. Anyway, any opinions on the un-pipped eggs? Thanks Steve

 

[asher]

I think it would do more harm than good to turn them at this point.

Can you candle them to see if they have internally pipped?

 

[SoleProvider]

leave them-I candle when Im not sure with the others who havent pipped yet. That way I know if I need to wait another day.

 

[gumpsgirl]

I wish I could give you some good advice here, but that's a tough one to call. Maybe MissPrissy will pipe up and tell you what to do. She's pretty smart with these sort of things.

Glad to have you!

 

[CindyS]

Definatly no need or reason to turn! One question, are you sure its day 33? All of my keets hatch on day 26, or should I say expode on day 26. I wouldnt think a keet would hatch on day 33.

 

[Northwoodsguineas]

Hi again- I'm sure it is really day 28, we miscalculated. The hens were on more eggs than they could cover, and apparently the first days they were sitting the eggs weren't very warm.

We are up to 9 energetic keets. They are turning some of the eggs with their movements. They are really energetic.

I suppose if the keet has internally pipped you can see a beak in the air sac when candled? We candled the eggs early in the process. But after 20 days or so all we could see was a black mass with the air sac on the big end.

Thanks for the advice on the turning issue. We will leave things alone. The ones that have hatched in the last few hours seem to be healthy.

Does anyone know if the chick has to internally pip to be able to chirp in the shell? We had fun with the baby moniter inside the incubator. It's incredible how much you can hear inside the egg.

 

[asher]

Yes, they have to internally pip to be able to shell. And yes, you would be able to see basically them or their beak moving around up in the air cell space if they have internally pipped.

 

[Northwoodsguineas]

Update-Thanks to all for the turning advice. It "turned" out to be moot. The hatched keets stumbling over the unhatched eggs turned them probably several times an hour. I didn't anticipate that.

It must not have hurt much. We have been hatching for 36 hours now and still going. About 40 of the original 80 purple guinea eggs have hatched so far, with half a dozen currently pipped. I was amazed how quickly they started eating when we began moving them to a brooder.

All look strong except one that has what looks like wry neck.Caused from lthe ack of turning maybe?