Chick zipped but then no movement :-[

[shannacrew]

Today is our hatch day, first time incubating. We are hatching Nine Crested Polish [and one silkie] shipped eggs in a Little Giant still air incubator. We saw movement in all but one on day 18. The first egg to pip was making some great progress zipping this morning, then stopped. No movements since. I think it has died :-[

We can see pretty well into the egg, and the chick hasn't moved or peeped in hours. In the mean time, another egg has hatched and that chick is doing great, and two more have external pips. LOTS of other cheeps going on! Anyway, just looking for advice as to why this happened? When they started hatching humidity jumped to 80%. Is that too high? Did we drown our chick? It had been 65/70% since lock down. During incubation we kept it at 45/50%. [We live in muggy east Texas, and it's been rainy all month]. We had a power outage on day 14, but quickly relocated incubator to a friend's place. Incubator temp did drop to 85 degrees while on the move...but was low for less than 30 minutes. [just for background info]

We've read tons of info, but this is our first hatch so looking for any advice?

 

[thehackleguy]

It sounds as if the chick may be dead, all you can do now is wait or help it out. I personally never assist in hatching but that is a personal decision you have to make. Your humidity could be a little high but judging from the picture (the down is drying) it is not likely that the chick drowned. They are sometimes just weak or genetically flawed. How long was your power out? I don't think it has anything to do with your hatching but I just cover mine with a blanket when the power goes out and un-cover it as soon as the power is back on.

 

[gimmie birdies]

Sometimes they just quit. I have an egg hatching too, EE/blue frizzle

 

[JeanR]

Sometimes, the chick is resting, but with no movement at all, it just didn't have the strength to finish the hatch......it is a tremendous effort to chip, turn, chip, turn, until the top can be pushed up and the chick push itself out! Tired and needs a rest. Yet some come our ready to eat and drink--may depend upon the feed given to the hen that laid the egg--some are better nourished. I had much better success with hatching when Lay Crumbles contained "animal products". Now, unless I feed the hens Codliver oil sandwiches--by hand, so I know how much they are eating--for those whose eggs I want to hatch, there will be some with Splay legs. (they can be easily fixed, if done promptly, but should not occur at all! For several years, Game Bird Layer still had animal products, but now that has stopped, so not worth the extra cost.

Helping is a matter of choice,. experience, and not really recommended, but when done timely, sometimes gives us a chick that we truly WANT--bloodlines to keep. Good luck--such joy to have chicks HATCH!

 

[milliner]

Sometimes mother nature just has to run her course dont think its anything u have done wring a bator is nothing like the real thing so things is gonna happen

 

[gimmie birdies]

egg above hatched.

 

[thehackleguy]

Quote:
This is true.

 

[gimmie birdies]

chick that hatched and 1/2 sister.

 

[shannacrew]

Thanks for all the replies! This was our first chick to pip and she didn't make it out of the egg. Another chick seemed to have a similar problem so we did help her a bit after 24 hours and no progress, but she is very weak and I'm not sure if she will make it or not [she's the one sitting in picture]. The membrane around her seemed to be drying out, it was hard and brown, even thought my humidity was QUITE high. I just chipped that away along with part of the shell [after watching several you tube videos and reading advice on this forum].

I know they usually cannot hatch for a reason, and mother nature will take its course either way :-[ So far 5 have hatched, and 4 to go...Today is day 22, is it usual to have such a big hatch window between chicks? I read that still air incubators could have hot/cold spots, and we did not vary the position of the eggs in the turner too much.

Our power outage was for the better part of a day, we did wrap in blankets but saw the temp dropping pretty quickly. When it got down to 85 we quickly relocated to where we could plug it back in.

We are very happy that 5 have hatched, we expected poor rates with shipped eggs and it does seem they were a bit mis-handled by the post office. This is my 11 y/old daughter's project, she is so in love with our little backyard flock and wanted to add some frizzled Polish, hence ordering eggs. We have learned SO much from this experience, and really appreciate all the advice and information on this forum. Here are the babies so far: [We took them out when they were bumping into heating element on top of incubator and playing soccer with the other eggs--they got moved to brooder]