Urgent Pip Question on Day 21... Please advise!!

[ChelseySchlatter]

I have eggs incubating in a Brinsea Mini Advance and it's day 21. I am a very new, very inexperienced chicken hatcher!

So as a newbie, I THOUGHT I had set the auto-turn feature properly so that it would stop turning on day 18, but unfortunately, I only had the turn function ON so it's been continuously turning the eggs every hour. We are incubating these eggs at my preschool, so over the weekend I was only checking periodically and didn't notice my error until I saw one of the chicks had pipped, her beak clearly visible through the hole... and then the incubator turned and flipped the pip face down!

Do I reach in a turn the egg so that the pip is once again right side up? I don't want to risk the humidity levels or shrink-wrapping the other eggs! (There are 7 total- 3 have tiny cracks, and this one face-down pip)

I have been frantically reading posts to decide if I should turn the egg back to it's original position or not. Please advise!

 

[oregonkat]

No need to position the egg differently to how it is now. I assume you turned the turner off now so you should be fine. The chick will zip and hatch just fine being turned over.

 

[ChelseySchlatter]

Thank you for your response! I absolutely changed the turning function right away- it's now off! Last year when we hatched chicks, they were already cute and fluffy when I walked in on Monday morning. I only had to take them out of the incubator... Now that I have to watch the "pip-to-zip", I'm so anxious!

Thanks again! I'm hoping we'll have happy, healthy chicks in the next day or so.

 

[oregonkat]

Thank you for your response! I absolutely changed the turning function right away- it's now off! Last year when we hatched chicks, they were already cute and fluffy when I walked in on Monday morning. I only had to take them out of the incubator... Now that I have to watch the "pip-to-zip", I'm so anxious!

Thanks again! I'm hoping we'll have happy, healthy chicks in the next day or so.

Dont worry too much about watching, it'll make you crazy. If you have had healthy hatches in the same incubator and the only thing that happened different this time is that you left the turner on for an extra day, you have nothing to worry about. Good luck with the little ones. Post when they start to hatch please.

 

[ChelseySchlatter]

So our little face-down baby hatched!! In fact, she hatched about 4 hours after my initial anxious post and I was able to watch the whole process... SO amazing!

And this morning when I walked into my office (Day 22), FOUR other babies were waiting for me in the incubator. Out of 7 eggs in my Brinsea, we have 5 chicks. I'm still watching the other two eggs, but I'm so exicted for these guys.

Thanks again!

 

[oregonkat]

Super, I am so happy for you.!! Enjoy the heck out of those little fuzzies....The whole hatching process is so incredible, it is one of my most favorite things to watch!