Are chicks stuck?

[GoldpartridgeHen]

Hello

I'm on day 24 of hatching chicken eggs. On day 22, two eggs pipped, and they stopped after making after a few cracks. I've read that they are supposed to take long rest breaks, but these chicks haven't made any progress since 10am Sunday.

What shall I do? Should I try the float test, or should I leave the eggs in there? I've read a lot of times how opening the incubator door is fatal for the chicks, so i'm leaving that till a last resort hopefully. There has been no sign of movement or cheeping from either of them, so i'm a bit worried.

Advice will be appreciated!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Sounds like the temp was off in your bator.

Open it up and see what's going on... The chicks that pipped should respond to light and sound if they are still viable. They may have passed already though as it's been a while.

I'm not a fan of the float test.

Opening the bator... *can* cause shrink wrapping... doesn't mean it will. But at this stage ya gotta see if anything is alive. If it makes you feel more comfortable, drape towels around to trap the humidity while you stick your hand in and take out an egg to candle.

If anything doe still seem viable... crank your humidity as high as you can.

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

ok!

I took the egg out, and candled it while swamping it with a wet towel, and all I could see was black, and I put it to my ear, and heard tapping noises, so that was encouraging!!

Then I put it under a heat lamp wrapped with a wet towel, and proceeded to peel off pieces, and parts of the membrane. (it was still white and hadn't dried, thankfully) The beak came into view and I can hear it cheeping and the beak is moving, opening and closing every minute or so. I put it back in the bator, temp. 37.3 degrees Celsius, 69% humidity.

I'm leaving it to work out for itself now. the hole I made is abt 1.5cm big, not counting membrane, with membrane abt 2cm

Hopefully everything works out!!

Thanks for help!

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

The chick put back in the bator is still alive, and cheeps, and i'm assuming its still absorbing the yolk. It hasn't made any progress on the hole, but i'm just wondering if I ought to leave it to absorb the yolk by itself and leave it to zip by itself?

How long would this take? Should I have to do most of the zipping for it?
Also how do I know when the chick has finished absorbing the yolk?

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

ok, no more progress made apart from movement, so I'm going to peel away part of the shell as zipping, so hopefully the chick will do the rest by itself when put back in the bator. I'll leave it in the shell to let it finish absorbing the yolk if it hasn't already.

 

[Newsab]

Hows it going ??

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

hopefully alright...
I took the egg out of the bator, and peeled away a bit more shell, making a hole just bigger than the size of a 2 pence piece.

I also accidently pulled at the membrane and a small patch of blood appeared, so I put it back in the bator straight away. The humidity is 70%

What should I do? Will the chick be alright, although I've drawn blood?
Its moved its beak upwards a bit (having a bit more space to do so)
its also cheeping and breathing regularly

 

[Newsab]

I would just leave it for now but make sure the membrane doesnt dry out .. an keep an eye on it

 

[GoldpartridgeHen]

yes.
I will have to see how it is tomorrow morning.
It's a Welsummer chick, btw.

My favourite!

 

[Trux]

Took my first egg about 38 hrs from pip to zip and out of the shell. It is hard to leave them to their own devices when you see that beak popping out of the shell and peeping, but I managed