What does Internal/External Piping look like?

After reading "Possibly Hatching Problems" and others eggs coming to hatch, I will be gone next weekend during the possible piping process, and I have my nephew watching our boys Friday night and return Saturday night. If the duckling starts piping what does it look like so I know to tell them what to look for and for any problems? Will the piping look like a small dent like what I was talking about yesterday when the egg got dented during transportation when our power went out? I'm trying to get directions in order for that time if it will start while I"m gone. Lock down for my egg 10 is Thursday October 7th, and I leave Friday afternoon, and will be home about 6ish on Saturday, which will put it at day 27/28 when things should start happening. Doubtful, but you never know. I think I can assume I'm safe and it won't pip until the 28th day when I'll be able to be home to watch things progress. But I'd rather be safe then sorry, if not directions for my nephew, but for me because Lord knows I will be a basketcase of nerves and excitement. So Katherine and others of expertise, be prepared next weekend!

Not right. The internal pip you can only see when candling, and know that it happened when the eggs start to rock. The external pip is a small dent going outward. It is so small that it can be missed. Eggs usually start to rock the same or next day when they are in lock down and a external pip usually happens around that time. The external pip has to be 24 hours after internal pip or it will suffocate in the egg. I write times down when my eggs do rock so I would not miss the window and can put a hole into the air sack area, if needed. So external pipping can happen on day 26 or 27. Then the chick starts to zip the egg in a circle and will hatch 24-48 hours later. The chick will shrink wrap if it cannot do the zipping task and die. You sometimes only see one hole getting bigger and nothing following that. These chicks need help or the membrane will shrink them to death. Again, noting times and watching the process is important. Hatching is the most crucial process and a lot of things can go wrong. There is just so much involved. Obviously you don't want to jump the gun and open the incubator to interfere. That is usually a guarantee for shrink wrapping them and you will lose lots of babies if you have no clue what you are doing. So yes you will be out when a lot of things happen. Perhaps that is a good thing because I know you cannot keep your hands off the incubator. Once hatched the chicks need to remain in the machine for 4 hours to dry off. They can stay up to 12 hours. After that they need to get a sip of electrolyte vitamin water and need to be moved to a warm brooder. Get the brooder started on day 27th so it get up to operating temps.

can someone please tell me I have a canadian goose egg I don't know for sure how old it is but I started hearing peeping inside the egg over 24 hours ago and still no external pipping. I can still hear it peeping and can see the egg rocking should I make a air hole and what is the best way to do that?

That means they are internally pipped.....and you need to let them externally pip. At this point you gotta simply be patient. We have had to help 2 out of 12 hatch but they pipped and then failed at the zip, so we wet them and waited, wet and wait wet and wait, chip a bit of egg shell keeping the membrane in place, more and more, and over 5 hours later she FINALLY pushed the shell off her fanny.

this was all after waiting 36 hours to have her do it on her own.

the others.....BAM they were there. they are all different.

Quote:
Great description! totally accurate. from pip to zip to hatch, love it! we took pictures along the way and one hatched in my hand! I will try to post those later tonight.

Ok, here are some shots i took recently.

Here is an internal pip, candled. we were SOOO excited!



Here is the external pip, same egg....turns out to be Kiwi:


She pops a hole in the shell herself..... we had to help her the rest of the way. We have a video of that which I will post to youtube.


Here is a nice zip that Nemo did:


The lid flipped open and she started to push out....we moved the lid out of the picture.



Look who is in a hurry to hatch!!


Here is Nemo the yellow one, and Kiwi the black one we helped...about 5 days old.

Here is Nemo fishing
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/73233_img_1651.jpg

and this was taken tonight, Nemo is starting to look like a Rouen.

katharinad, when you say put a whole in the air sack, what do you use? I've had chicken people tell me to tap it with a spoon to crack it and i don't think i can do that. I lost 4 out of 8 calls last weekend and they did make it to internal pip, and then nothing. This time i don't want that to happen. I've got one externaly pipped now and when i candled them last night at lockdown there were 8 out of 10 internaly pipped. With the last batch they all poped out one right after another. So easy!! Then when i opened the remaining 4 i used twessers (can't spell sorry) and pocked a tiny whole to see what was going on. Is that the tool i should use when i help this next batch? It made a tiny whole and then it was easy to remove pieces of the shell. I do not want to loose any this time. The last ones were fullu formed and thier little bills were right against the shell.
Please if you have any ideas on how to open them can you help ne? Desperate to save these guys. Thanks Angie.

We took our time helping.

We used tweezers too, to chip away at the shell. we left the membrane, for as long as we could, wetting it every once in a while to keep it from sticking to the baby. Eventually we gingerly started to peel this part, ensuring no part of baby was touching it, or stuck to it. It took about 5 hours and it was tedious.

If you see blood, STOP.

I noticed the one that didn't actually hatch, was fully formed but had not sucked up all the yolk. Her tummy was protruding out and the yolk was still a small bag. She was dead and cold already when I started to peel the shell, cuz I didn't want to take a chance.

Good luck, I was very nervous about helping too.

Thanks so much for getting back to me!!! Last time it was in the middle of the night and nobody was on line. It was like giving birth yourself, except there are nurses to help. I personaly understand what little calls in the eggs feel like. Both of my delivery's were three weeks over due and one was a dry birth and both of them had to be helped out. AND i hemorrhage(i looked that spelling up) after both, so if i see blood no problen i will stop!!! I will let everyone know how it goes. The baby's from the last hatch.

My favorite

How long do i wait for the zipping? She poped a whole through this morning and nothing since. How long do i wait to help zip? I don't want to but i will.