Chick Hatching Study
We will be updating this page as we do our chick Hatching Study. Incubation will started on March 26th and the chicks should start hatching on April 15th. 21 days total of incubation.
Day 1: Checking out the incubator and the eggs.
Day 8:
The egg on the left is an infertile egg that will not produce a chick. We had 5 infertile eggs and 13 fertile eggs. The middle photo is one of our fertile eggs. You can see the chick starting to form inside. The dark circle is the chicks eye. The egg on the right is an example of what the chick would look like inside the egg at this time.
Day 14:
Today the chick is starting to take up more space in the egg. It turns on its side and continues to use the yolk in the egg as its food. The chick grows a small bump on the end of its beak called an egg tooth. This bump will be an important tool for them to help them break through the shell when they hatch. The egg tooth will fall off within the first 24 hours after hatching.
Day 18:
The chick is now so big that it is starting to touch all sides of the inside of the shell. The chick has soft feathers called down covering its body and it uses up the last of the yolk. The yolk will give the chick enough energy to hatch and not have to eat for a few days after hatching. The incubator is placed into LOCKDOWN. The turner is taken out and the eggs are placed on their sides. The humidity is raised to 70%. This will help the chick hatch without the membrane of the shell drying out and sticking to the chick, making it hard or impossible for it to hatch. The incubator will not be opened again until all of the chicks have hatched.
Days 19 and 20
Over these two days the chicks will move inside of their eggs to best position themselves for hatching. On day 20 (Sunday), the chick will peck a small hole into the air bubble on the end of the egg and take its first breath of air. Once it does we will be able to hear them peep inside of their eggs. Now we wait for them to "pip". Pipping is when they use their egg tooth to break through the shell and start the hatching process. Once it pips it will peck a circle on the inside of the shell like a zipper. When it has enough energy it will use its feet and neck/shoulders to press against the shell until it hatches!! Once a chick pips it can take several hours for the chick to hatch, because it takes a ton of energy to make the initial pip in the shell. It will need to sleep for a few hours before starting to make the zipper inside.
Day 21: Hatching Day!
The Chicks are pipping! We have two chicks so far and around 5 that are pipped!
2 chicks came out after school, so we now have 4 chicks! It will be exciting to see if some more hatch over night!
Day 22:
We had 5 chicks hatch overnight and the kids got to see 2 hatch today. We have 1 more that has pipped and one that we are unsure if it has or not. We are so blessed to have had so many hatch! 11 chicks so far!
Day 23:
We had one more chick hatch overnight. We now have 12 chicks! We have one egg we are thinking will not hatch. We moved the chicks from the incubator to the brooder this morning. The brooder has water and food and a heat plate that will keep them warm.