Day 22- Chick pipped but cheeping a lot

[Jetblack2004]

Hey everyone!
It's Day 22 for my eggs in the incubator- I haven't had a great result. Only 3 of the 42 eggs set originally are alive. One of the three was pipping internally. This morning at around 9am I went to the incubators and there was an good-sized external pip! I was out until around four and when I got back, the chick hadn't done much more. I can now see it's little beak.
It is cheeping LOTS! Now I'm wondering if that's a bad thing. The cheep sounds a bit like it's giving up. I'm wondering whether to assist. It is on Day 22, and it had a rough start to incubation. The fan wasn't working properly and the eggs didn't turn for the first six days.

I'm really nervous. I could kill it if I help it unnecassarly, and I could kill it if I don't help it!
What should I do?

Thank in advance
-Jet

 

[Jetblack2004]

Nevermind - He's unzipping by himself!

-Jet

 

[Pyxis]

Sorry about your bad hatch

Can you give some more info, like what kind of incubator you have, what the temperature has been, what your humidity was for the first 18 days and what it is now, and whether or not you've calibrated your thermometer and hygrometer to make sure they are correct? And also the date that you set the eggs?

Glad to hear he's unzipping! Maybe with this info we can help you do even better for your next hatch.

 

[chicmom]

Oh my. Have the other two eggs hatched? Many people will say never help! It is dangerous. But if you think the chick has run out of energy, it may need help. Such a tough call....Perhaps you could just very very carefully make the little pip hole bigger? If you enlarge the hole a tiny bit at a time, you can tell if the membrane is kind of drying out, which is bad. (I'm probably going to be unpopular for saying this, but if you work very very slowly, you may be able to help it out.....)

 

[chicmom]

Nevermind - He's unzipping by himself!

-Jet

OH I JUST SAW THIS! YAY!!!!!

 

[tuesdaze]

Glad to hear that! It's a difficult decision to make, that's for sure. The articles were a big help to me.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/
I would love to see baby pics!
I'm guessing your next hatch will go better. The first 7 days of incubation, turning is very important, so now that you got that fixed, that should help.

 

[Jetblack2004]

@Pyxis. Incubator is a Brinsea Ovation 56. Temp has been 37.4 all the way through. Humidity has been around 45%. I have upped it to around 75% for hatching. The thermometer is built in to the incubator. They were set on the 5th of September.

@chicmom. Thanks for the advice! Yeah it is really tough to know what to do. I've had to make hard decisions with eggs before.

@tuesdaze. Thank you for the link! Yes, I will post pictures when he's all fluffed up!

Thank you all so much for the replies!

p.s. He's a Barred Rock and is a shipped egg.

-Jet

 

[chicmom]

Hi Jet! I've got five silkie eggs in the incubator right now that I had shipped to me (in Ohio) from NC. They're about six days in now, and I candled and there are three doing very well, and two I'm not so sure about. I've bought eggs from breeders before and NONE hatched, so I can relate to getting a very small hatch. I put two of the eggs under a broody hen and I haven't checked those, so I hope they hatch for my little silkie hen. Hatching is so fun, but it's hard waiting......LOL

 

[Pyxis]

@Pyxis. Incubator is a Brinsea Ovation 56. Temp has been 37.4 all the way through. Humidity has been around 45%. I have upped it to around 75% for hatching. The thermometer is built in to the incubator. They were set on the 5th of September.

@chicmom. Thanks for the advice! Yeah it is really tough to know what to do. I've had to make hard decisions with eggs before.

@tuesdaze. Thank you for the link! Yes, I will post pictures when he's all fluffed up!

Thank you all so much for the replies!

p.s. He's a Barred Rock and is a shipped egg.

-Jet

Shipped eggs could account for some of the loss, for sure. But, I would use outside thermometers to check the temp. Brinsea is usually pretty good, but built in gauges on incubators can be off and your little guy was one day late, which is indicative of low temperature.

Humidity may have been a little high - did you do an eggtopspy on any of the ones that quit? If so, did you see excess liquid in there?