Bantam eggs haven't pipped internally, 1st hatch.

[GD91]

THEY ARE HERE!!! Woke up & 2 of my eggs have pipped! Ones got a small pip & the other looks like the chick smuggled a mini sledgehammer into its egg & has cracked a good chunk of shell away.They are both cheeping. I'm just waiting... waiting...

 

[NosiphoChooks]

How exciting I want to see pics but you don't have a camera. I am using a fan assisted incubator too how many eggs fit in yoir brinsea mini?!

 

[GD91]

I can fit upto 10 chicken eggs into my brinsea eco mini, maybe at a squeeze 11 bantam eggs

Well, I am knackered. I have been up all night, but it was worth it. Even hubby was fascinated.

The first chick hatched on its own yesterday evening & zipped really quickly. Sadly hubby was out at the time, but a friend was here to watch.

The second chick pipped & stopped. I waited 13 -14 hours before I assisted it carefully with a set of tweezers. Twice. Apparently my first efforts weren't good enough because it stayed sat in its shell with the membrane covering part of its head. The membrane was tough & was preventing it moving its head to pip... I was suspecting early stages of shrinkwrapping or something as it was the first egg to cheep & I had opened the incubator to add more water right at the beginning before i realised an egg was cheeping plus the the 1st one to hatch wasn't the 1st to cheep & pip.
It was sitting in the egg & I noticed it was having a far bigger struggle than the first chick, rocking its egg everywhere, just nibbling at the visible membrane for ages & its cheeping was starting to sound really distressed... Not like the loud cheep - cheep you hear or the quiet meep noise they make... It was more like a truly pathetic whinging squeak now & again.

That chick is now fine & just as noisy & boisterous as the chick which hatched on its own. It has no visible defects at all. They are still in the incubator & I have a 3rd egg well - pipped which I'm waiting to hatch on its own as its progress has been slow, but steady so far.

Just one egg left after that which hasn't pipped at all or moved in ages... about 24 hours.
What should I do? Is it probably just late or dead?

The other chicks are just kicking it around & ignoring it. They have not paid it any attention at all like they have been to each other when they were pipping.

At one point the first chick was actually walking up to the second chick while it was still in the egg, cuddled up to it & began pecking the loose pieces of shell & membrane of where the second had pipped & cheeping at it as if to say " Get out NOW!!!"

It was really funny & sweet, shame I was panicking at the time!

Now they are both snuggled upto the 3rd pipped egg & cheeping, but they aren't pecking at it just dozing on & off!

So it looks like I have 3 out of 4. Not bad for a first timer I hope

 

[NosiphoChooks]

My polish did the same thing bashing the unhatched chicks about and generally harassing thw cheeping eggs! Glad you had a good hatch in the end it is so exciting. I would leave the other egg til the end of day 23 and then if nothing bury it. Ita sad but sometimes they just aren't strong enough to make it into the big wide world.

 

[GD91]

That egg never hatched.
I opened it up when I sensed no movement & the little chick was just dead, hadn't turned & still had veins and yolk. I noticed the airsac was massive & the membrane brown with the veins breaking down. Our tomcat always appreciates dead chicks (but doesn't like live ones, weird that is), so it went in his dish & we never saw it again

Waste not, as long as its fresh....

I read what you said about the hatched chicks harrasing hatching chicks. I nearly lost a healthy chick to that yesterday.

Woke up to this loud screeching (the incubator was next to the bed) and saw my last hatching chick with blood coming from its membrane around its head while the 2 other fluffy, walking & bored chicks continued to peck at it & remove lots its shell.

Needless to say they were taken straight out of the incubator & moved happily to the brooder to play with some toys while the chick in the egg was wrapped up in a damp cloth & I stopped the bleeding with some tissue & I wacked the humidity up even higher in the incubator. I then wet the exposed membrane every few hours with a cottonwool bud.
So, it had enough extra TLC & it paid off.

Happy to say, woke this morning and it had hatched on its own. All looks normal so far.

Now I'm off to the chick section to read about caring for those adorable little cute balls of fluff!!!