Egg has externally pipped but beak looks stuck!

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Chickynewbie41

In the Brooder
Jan 28, 2020
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Hello! I am fairly new to incubating eggs so I would appreciate any ideas that you might have about by dilemma.
It is day 21 and three out of the seven have successfully hatched. However, one of the ones that began pipping about 3 hours ago has stuck it's beak through the pipping hole but has not moved or peeped since then. (I can see a slight opening and closing of the beak so I am guessing it is alive and breathing.) Since it has not been moving, making progress or even chirping for several hours, I lifted the lid of the incubator slightly to peel back a little piece of the shell. So far, still hasn't moved. Could it's beak be stuck and require an assisted hatch? (I would like to avoid an assisted hatch if possible...)

Thank you so much for any advice you can give me!
 
Chickynewbie41 said:
Hello! I am fairly new to incubating eggs so I would appreciate any ideas that you might have about by dilemma.
It is day 21 and three out of the seven have successfully hatched. However, one of the ones that began pipping about 3 hours ago has stuck it's beak through the pipping hole but has not moved or peeped since then. (I can see a slight opening and closing of the beak so I am guessing it is alive and breathing.) Since it has not been moving, making progress or even chirping for several hours, I lifted the lid of the incubator slightly to peel back a little piece of the shell. So far, still hasn't moved. Could it's beak be stuck and require an assisted hatch? (I would like to avoid an assisted hatch if possible...)

Thank you so much for any advice you can give me!
Click to expand...
could you post a picture?

It sounds completely normal to me, but there might be something I'm missing in the description.

When you say began pipping 3 hours ago, what do you mean? Is that when it made it's first pip in the shell, or do you mean it had started zipping?
 
It can take a 'long' time for the chick to get out, so give it at least until it's been 24 hours since the first hatched to be sure it's truly 'stuck', unless it's noticeably losing strength. Right now, it's getting air and has plenty of food stored up in the yolk to last it at least the next two days.

I had one that was in my last hatch - malposition with the head over the wing and I had to bust him out as he could not turn and was wearing himself out trying to break through at the pip point. The little one ended up with a bruise on his beak and sore red legs. He took a few days to build up his leg strength, but there were marked improvements each day and he was a quite vigorous chick otherwise.
 
Another note, if it seems to be 'gaping', that's an indication that it may still be absorbing the yolk and you 'do not' want to assist until it has had sufficient time to complete this step. Some do this before the external pip, but this isn't always the case... Also, if there is obviously still blood visible in the membrane, it's too early - an assisted hatch could turn bloody. The mother of all assisted hatching guides is here as well:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

Give it a read while you're waiting. And do wait... wait... wait... wait... it's literally an 'all day' event.
 
1580266947927.png

So here is a picture... the beak has not moved for several hours now and I have not been hearing peeps.
 

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