first time hatcher and one egg hadn't hatched

[CherylCW]

​

Hi everyone.

I'm new here.
I've kept Hens for the last 7 years and had the occasional broody girl but she always came out of it no problem.

I have a aruacana who had been non-stop broody for the last 14 weeks, no matter what I tried she wouldn't come out of it and had picked her chest bare and was very stressed angry.

As a last resort it was put to me to let her have some fertilised eggs to hatch, so I started looking into it and realised it would take 3 weeks for her to hatch then and we were going on holiday in 3 weeks and I didn't want my friend to have to deal with it but also didn't want to wait til I got back in case she was still in brood then if I added another 3 weeks for hatching shed have been broody for 21weeks.

So I found a farm on Thursday and managed to convince them to sell me 3 pre-incubated brahma eggs that we're due yesterday (Saturday 4th July) so I fetched them straight away and they were happily under my hen

on Thursday within 20 minutes.
1 of them hatched yesterday lunch and one had pipped at that point but done nothing by the time I went to bed. This morning I woke up to find another

.
The third egg was moving on Thursday and they had candled it at the farm to make sure they were all OK. It's now 10pm on day 22 and it still hasn't pipped. I Haven't seen it move yesterday or today. Is it likely it has died in she'll or is there still chance for it to hatch ?
My friend recommended I Make a Little hole in the Shell to get it started but I'm a Complete novice at all of this and am scared I Would hurt the chick

by accident if it's still alive and end up killing it by mistake .

Does anyone have any advice they can give or recommend how long I keep The egg for? The broody mum is still very attached to the egg so won't leave the nest with her chicks yet and I've if the chicks seems to be fed up of that as he keeps piecing at her face and eye .

Thanks in advance ,

Cheryl

 

[kuchchicks]

If you candle it you may/may not see movement. Try putting it up to your ear to see if you hear anything. You may hear peeping or a clicking sound which is the chick trying to pip out. You can try to poke a little hole in the fat part of the egg where the air cell is but be very careful. You may able to see inside to see if there is any movement.

 

[GitaBooks]

Congrats on the chicks!

Try cheeping to it. If it doesn't respond, it probably died.

However, you can check by very carefully opening up a breathing hole with a needle (careful not to poke the chick) to see if you can help it out. We've done that a lot.
To open the egg very carefully make a crack by tapping it against something (I don't do this, my Mom does) and then use a needle just to pick away the shell. Don't poke in, go at it side-ways. Pick away tiny piece after tiny piece until you can see the beak. This will let the mother stand up and move-on with her other chicks. You can slip the new chick (if its alive) under her when she is resting and she'll bond to it too.

Best of luck!

 

[CherylCW]

Thank you both for your replies. I will give that a go later as I'm just on my way to work, who knew hatching eggs could be so worrying