Well I have 1 baby hatched and 2 more zipping, but another one that has been halfway zipped since around 8 this morning. It is breathing and I can see the beak which I know are good signs...but it still has made no progress. When I go and tap on the incubator by it it moves and peeps. I wan a help the little one, but I know I shouldn't just yet
Hi Debs55. How are things this morning?
Normally i dont help chicks to hatch but this last hatch i had both early temp problems and late low humidity issues. I had 2 chicks get stuck halfway through zipping.. I broke my rule since i though their problem was my fault not theirs.
I had one girl who was dry and mostly fluffed in the shell but alive and well. It looks like her egg got rolled during pipping and that put her face down and she couldn't zip the last little bit. There was enought of a gap in the shell that the forced air dried her out.
In a different incubator i had a boy quit part way through zipping but was chirping away. I helped him out after about 12 hours and the back of his head was glued to the membrane by dried albumen. He had failed to pip internally (something i am seeing happen in my large oval eggs on occasion) and combined with the low humidity he was stuck. The membrane patch had to be cut from the shell to free him and went with him like a little hemet into the brooder.
Both chicks were completely normal and vigorous once out unlike the typical ones that need help because they are frail. The male is quite a loudmouth-- he must have learned that chirping loudly gets a response from mama.
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