Unexpected hatching - help!

[Ridgerunner]

@Texas Kiki
When should I stop turning the eggs? Some people say day 18, but some say day 14. Will it be fine to stop turning them when the older ones start to hatch?

Day 18.

I'm going to disagree. Surprise, you get a different opinion on something on this forum.

When a poultry science professor that specializes in chicken reproduction and who is also a consultant to commercial chicken industry gave a talk to a group of backyard chicken owners this question came up. His response was that turning is very important early in incubation for different reasons. But for chicken eggs those reasons went away at 14 days. It does not hurt to turn the eggs after that but it is no longer necessary. That's what I'm basing my comment on.

In a regular incubation keep turning them until 18 days. It does not hurt and there are no benefits to stopping earlier. But yours is not a regular incubation, it is a staggered hatch. I don't know how you are turning them or what you are doing with humidity but since you don't have to turn them after 14 days I'd factor that in to my plans. Keep it as simple as possible.

 

[Kiki]

I'm going to disagree. Surprise, you get a different opinion on something on this forum.

When a poultry science professor that specializes in chicken reproduction and who is also a consultant to commercial chicken industry gave a talk to a group of backyard chicken owners this question came up. His response was that turning is very important early in incubation for different reasons. But for chicken eggs those reasons went away at 14 days. It does not hurt to turn the eggs after that but it is no longer necessary. That's what I'm basing my comment on.

In a regular incubation keep turning them until 18 days. It does not hurt and there are no benefits to stopping earlier. But yours is not a regular incubation, it is a staggered hatch. I don't know how you are turning them or what you are doing with humidity but since you don't have to turn them after 14 days I'd factor that in to my plans. Keep it as simple as possible.

I agree that turning eggs is more important during the beginning of incubation.

I stopped turning quail eggs early, on purpose, to test this out and I had no problem with them hatching.

 

[Theblackpukeko]

And my suggestion for the other eggs would be to watch for the first pip in the first group of eggs, add the water then, and stop turning them all.

That's a great idea, I think I'll do that. I'll watch closely and see what happens.

It's better for the humidity levels to remain constant so I don't think you should continue to let it drop and then raise it again.
Steady is better.

Yeah, the problem is just that I have to monitor the humidity manually and I'm away during the day because of work. So it always drops a bit during that time, unless I have it super high. And I can't really do anything except refill whenever I get home

 

[Theblackpukeko]

But yours is not a regular incubation, it is a staggered hatch.

Yep, because I'm a first timer I had no idea that staggered hatching was a thing - and preferably avoided. I did a lot of research before I started incubating, but also a lot afterwards, and this, unfortunately, was one of the topics that I learned about later.

Since I've been regularly candling every evening these days, I believe we're getting really close to the first chick hatching. Today, one of the older eggs made a big jump in growth and is almost completely filled out by the chick now. Since the older ones have been sitting under a hen before we took them, I wonder if maybe she layed the other two later than this one but started sitting already. It is also the one with a slightly bigger air cell.
I'm so excited now! Can't wait to see what happens ♡

 

[Theblackpukeko]

I believe that we may have our first internal pip!

 

[Kiki]

I believe that we may have our first internal pip!

 

[Kiki]

Does it look something like this?

 

[ValerieJ]

 

[Henry&Friends]

Any updates? I wanna see those chicks!

 

[Theblackpukeko]

Does it look something like this?

Yep, that's pretty much it. I was only able to identify it because I had seen it with the pukeko egg before. The three have all pipped internally now, no external pips yet. But I only discovered the first one about 10 hours ago and the others about 5 hours ago, so no stressing. Even though I can't wait any longer and am completely on the edge with excitement.

My colleagues call me the crazy bird lady now! Two days ago, the guy who was completely against me incubating chickens found a wild nest (probably starling) and begged me to just give it a try and pop them in the bator. With the circumstances (eggs had been warm, but were cold when they got to me) I thought they would be dead by now. Surprise: Three out of four now have embryos with a visible heartbeat! One died, has a blood ring. I seriously don't know what I keep getting myself into, but I just couldn't say no!

To distract myself from the hatch, I'm gonna take a walk with Tahi now. She's doing wonderful and I think I underestimate what she can already do!