Urgent advice please

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Firstly, Hello! I am new to all this and so I would much appreciate some help

I have had my first batch of eggs in my incubator for 20 days, and I noticed that one had pipped last night (yes I was surprised)

Very excited I woke this morning to see that nothing had happened. After trawling through forums, i deduced that I should investigate. I removed the egg from the incubator, and got the shock of my life when the chick inside started wiggling and cheeping (I know....what did I think would happen????).

Anyway, I removed a small piece of the shell, and i noticed that the membrane is very dry and leathery. I peeled it back a little with a toothpick, no blood or anything, put a very damp cloth in my incubator and returned the egg.

I am wondering if you can help me with

1) should I give any more help if no progress is made in the next few hours, as obviously there is a lively little soul in there...and

2) is there anything I can do to aid the chicks that have not yet hatched, or pipped with regards to humidity

Thank you
 
Hi

I had the same problem a few weks ago and I'm also all very new to this hatching lark! The first egg to pip was the problem it started on the friday morning and didn't make any more progress throughout the day. In the mean time two others hatched and were perfectly fine. By 10pm that night we were really worried about the chick. I have always said all the way along that if they are struggling to get out the shell and can't pip and hatch normally then they are proberly not going to make it so leave them alone. although when i found myself in that situation I couldn't help myself! (I know what a hypocrit!) I found a guide on the internet that was really useful and while my sister read the guide aloud to me i followed the steps. It was extremely nerve racking and i didn't have a clue what I was doing. I gently removed most of the egg shell as the membrane had become detached from the egg and mostly dry. But beware I did tear the membrane a couple of times and it did bleed! In this situation i just put the egg back and let the bleeding stop. It's really inportant to go slowly when helping the chick out to stop any major bleeds as any bleeding can be dangerous to the little chick. In the end i got the incubator really humid and left the chick mostly with the membrane left surrounding it for the night. By morning two more chicks had hatched but the little stuck chick hadn't really made any progress. The membrane had begun to dry and go rubbery so the pieces i could see that were clear i removed VERY SLOWLY! in the end i managed to get the chick out and it just laid there there was some egg sac still in the shell but as the chick wiggled it broke away before i could stop it. The chick lay there for the rest of the afternoon and we cried alot! In the end we decided to move it to an incubator i had running with just the fan and heat on the other chicks. We moved the dry chicks to the brooder to prevent this little one getting stomped on. By the next morning the chick was up and shouting for breakfast! we couldn't believe it it looked so ill an lethargic the day before we did consider culling it.
I'm glad we didn't as she is growing into the most beautiful hen and we have named her lucky! It is very heartbreaking when this happens but the only thing i can say is that if you are going to help make sure you take your time and don't forget to try and encourage the chick to do it itself.

best of luck
Emma
 
Thanks so much for your reply

I have checked on it, and it appears to have made some progress as I can now see the whole of its eye and it has managed to remove the membrane from that side of its head at least. I will leave it for now I think and if it is still in there late afternoon and seems weaker I will give a little more help.

Its also good to know that your other eggs hatched normally. It means that the rest of mine have a shot.

Thanks again
 
It is very hard not to help a chick out of the shell, we have all done it. Try and leave it alone if you can, but if you feel that it has made no progress on its own, then personally I would help it.
Good luck let us all know how you get on

Regards Sue
 
They can spend all day and sometimes more doing nothing, then hatch completely within half an hour.

You din't mention humidity which should be up around 60-65% one the eggs are chipped.
 
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