Mama_2017
Chirping
- Feb 13, 2025
- 45
- 25
- 54
My eggs are starting to hatch

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So it pipped about 12 hours before you wrote this. Nothing unusual about that but it is frustrating.this one hatched between the time 5-7am there was another one who started pipping its egg around 5pm yesterday but hasn’t fully hatched yet.. is that okay?
It’s hatching nowBefore the egg hatches, the chick absorbs the yolk. It can live off of that yolk without eating or drinking for 72 hours or more. Nature did that so the early hatchers can wait on the later ones without Mama abandoning the nest and taking them off to eat and drink. I've had some hatches either in the incubator and with a broody hen over within 16 hours of the first chick hatching. I've had some stretch into the third day.
If I have an emergency inside the incubator I take care of it, but without an emergency I do not take them out until I'm sure the hatch is over but within 72 hours.
So it pipped about 12 hours before you wrote this. Nothing unusual about that but it is frustrating.
A chick has to do a lot of work before it can hatch. It has to absorb the yolk, dry up the blood vessels in the membrane surrounding it, and few other things. Some chicks do a lot of that between internal pip and external pip. We like these because they hatch relatively soon after external pip. Some wait to do a lot of that until after external pip and zip. These can take 24 hours of more after external pip to zip. It can be hard to be patient but if you try to help it before it is ready you can kill it.
You might do some research on here looking for how to help one hatch so you are prepared. The hard part is knowing when to help.
Good luck!