If Astrid and Ares follow the same incubation time frame from the past two years then we are now in the final 10 days of incubation. Incubation typically takes 30-33 days but can be as short as 29 days and as long as 35 days. Our falcons have hit 33 days for the first hatch in the past two years. If that holds true again this year we could see our first hatch on May 3rd.
Of course we will have to watch for the telltale sign of a “pip” that alerts us a hatch is imminent. A pip is a small hole in the egg created by the “eggtooth” of the chick inside. The eggtooth is a small tooth like structure on top of the chicks beak. When a chick is fully developed, a muscle on the back of the neck contracts which springs the head upward causing the eggtooth to pierce the egg. The small hole created by this action is called a pip. The chick then uses the eggtooth to “saw” its way out of the egg.