Hatching Eggs

I’ve seen mistakes in books or movies regarding hatching eggs, be it chickens or dinosaurs, so I decided to set the record straight.

Here is the normal hatch sequence:

The chick starts pecking the inside of the egg and makes the first crack. At this point, you can hear peeping, feel vibration, and hear pecking. This part of hatching can go on for about a day.

 

The chick works its way around the egg. Once it starts this circle, it normally hatches within a few hours.

 

The chick pushes the top off the egg. Soon, it will pop out.

 

A new chick that’s still wet and tired from the struggle to escape the egg. The other chick has dried off.

 

On the tip of the chick’s beak, you can see the egg tooth, which is what the chick uses to escape the egg. This comes off after a day or so.

 

If you’re writing a book and someone is hatching an egg, it’s important to let it hatch on its own, not break it out like some books or movies do. Breaking it out too soon means it may not be ready to come out, which can cause bleeding, among other things like a yolk sack hanging out, which is normally fatal. Once they’ve started circling the egg, like in the second picture, helping generally won’t cause too much trouble since they’re about ready to come out.

Another common mistake is animals that pop out of the egg and are fluffy and running around. When a chick escapes the egg, it’s pretty tired and can’t walk. It also won’t hatch out of the egg all fluffy. It will be a wet mess.

I’ve had a few complications with hatching eggs. One issue is when the chick is backwards, meaning it’s hatching from the small end of the egg instead of the big end. This normally goes okay, though it’s not a bad idea to keep a close eye on eggs that are backwards. I had one chick finish the circle and get its head out of the egg, but the hole was too small for the rest of the body so I had to help it.

If anyone has egg related questions, I’ll be happy to answer them.