Weird pipping behaviour

[Jerms]

My Bob eggs on day 23 of incubation and they are acting a bit strange.   This is my first batch from my own hens and I only have 7 eggs in the 'bator right now.  Anyway, they're not pipping in the normal place.  They're pipping close to the middle of the egg, not at the large end.  One is significantly ahead of the others and it looks like he's tearing a large hole in the side of the egg instead of going around the end in a circle.  The main difference I see from my first hatching attempt (which was very successful) is that I'm now using an egg turner in my Hovabator instead of manually turning them.  Has anyone else had this problem and should I expect a successful hatch?

Thanks,
JC

[coveyrun]

If they are pipping they will probably be fine just keep that humidity up and lid closed

[Redhorse]

You did take them out of the turner right

[Jerms]

Yes, I took the turner out of the 'bator.  I just got to thinking, though (I know, that's a dangerous idea).  Are the eggs supposed to be in the turner pointed end down?  Having never used one before (and not even thinking about it much) I put them in the turner wide end down and now that I think about it, it probably screwed up their air sac, right?  When I candled them a few days ago the air sacs were still at the wide end and they looked normal according to what I saw last summer with my first hatch.  

JC

[stewaw]

Large end goes up and pointed end goes down in the turner.

[Jerms]

Yeah, I had a sneaking suspicion that I did it wrong.    Well, better to do it with 7 eggs than the approximate 50 that I'll be putting in in a couple of days.

JC

[wirenut]

Well since you had them in upside down and if some do hatch, which I hope they do, I hope they don't try and stand on their heads (lol) just a little yoke. If they are piping thur I think they will be fine.

[Jerms]

Well, so far I have 3 of the 7 hatched, alive and well!   The first one made it out by himself but the other two were starting to pip from the center of the egg and working their way TOWARDS the tip!  Having had good success last summer assisting a chick that was having trouble hatching, I, with the help of my Leatherman's scissors and an X-Acto knife, helped the little buggers out of their prison onto a kitchen towel spread out on the table.  So far they are doing just fine.  My 10 year old daughter videotaped the procedure which takes about 4 to 5 minutes, so if anyone is interested just let me know and I'll make a digital copy of it available.  We'll see how the rest of them do tomorrow since today was day 23.