A pip but no zip

[GreenAcresFarm]

I a chick has pipped a whole in the egg and has not gotten any further in the last 5 hours do you help? He is chipping, a little, but not sure if he is to weak or what? Do you help or is this normal. This is only my 1st batch. The 1st one to hatched was completely out from start to finish in 2 hours.

 

[SarahIrl]

Relax! Can take 24 hours sometimes, it's working away inside absorbing yolk etc, so it is busy even if you can't see it!

 

[GreenAcresFarm]

Thanks, I will try! I am a first time mother hen ya know.

 

[pgpoultry]

Chicks vary a lot. Most will get out once they have pipped, but a few don't. Usually I will try to help if the chick seems to have just run out of steam. I would not do this until I had watched over 4 or 5 hours and seen the chick trying but not making progress. Some argue that these chicks will be too weak to survive, but that is not my experience. Even the most scrawny of little guys seem often to do well after they have had a good rest,
Good luck,
Sandie

 

[GreenAcresFarm]

well we are now pippin and zippin everywhere, I have 10 that have hatched so far....
I have 3 more that have pipped. The whole family is loving it!!!

 

[Chickaholic]

Quote:
YAY!!! How exciting!!

 

[FenDruadin]

Yay!!! My duck eggs generally take 48 hours from pip to zip, and the one time I hatched chicken eggs it was 24 hours, so I would certainly never start to help after only five hours. But it looks like you don't need to worry anyway--congrats!!!!

 

[FenDruadin]

Oops--I just want to add--I said "never" but I have to make one exception. My most recent hatch had underdeveloped air cells, due to an incubation mistake on my part. One duck pipped and IMMEDIATELY began expanding the pip, very energetically. It continued to make the hole larger for a few hours, behaving very vigorously. I was so excited, thinking, "Wow, what a go-getter." But then it just stopped. It was dead. I now know what happened: The air cell was underdeveloped, but the duckling was strong. It was trying really hard to keep its little bill up above the membrane so it wouldn't drown, and so it kept poking at the shell trying to get higher and higher. But it eventually ran out of energy and drowned.

So, I now have one exception: If I know the air cells are underdeveloped, and a duck pips and then expands the pip very very quickly and vigorously, I will help it out. It's possible I couldn't have helped it anyway--it might not have absorbed the yolk and might have bled to death if I'd tried. But perhaps just setting it on its side would have given it the ability to breathe without working so hard. Or I might have helped it out of the shell just fine.

Anyway--just wanted to say that "never" is *almost* never true.