Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 Incubator is AMAZING!

[CluckNDoodle]

View attachment 2218018
First of the lavender Guineas just hatched : D
There are 4 others that have pipped and are making great progress, but I'm worried about this guy:

View attachment 2218023
The red circle is where it "pipped". Once I saw that, I gave it a safety hole (green circle). The others have cracked chunks of shell off, but this one hasn't made progress. When I took it out to put the hole in, I candled and didn't see any movement. Since I put it back in, I've seen it rock again, though. And I've seen movement through the safety hole.

What do you guys think? Malposition? Am I going to have to assist? Given that it pipped around the same time as the others, how long should I wait?

Yay guineas!
When you candled the egg you're concerned about, did it looks like the pip was inside the air cell or below? You can tell if they're malpositioned once they pip by whether it's it the area of the shell that lights up or not. Most of the time if they're able to pip externally they can hatch without assistance but only time will tell.

I wouldn't worry about the pip being smaller than the others, it's the build up of carbon dioxide that encourages the chick to start thrashing to peck through the shell, if the initial pip isn't enough they will peck it again.

If it is malpositioned you also have to consider that the pip is both the internal and external pip in one go and it can take the chick what seems like twice as long to hatch because they don't have that period of time while they're pipped internally in the air cell.

I hope all of that makes sense. I was up all night with my Olive Eggers hatching, lol. I'm sooooo tired.

 

[Willow2253]

I now have 5 chicks running around in the incubator, and 5 more pipped! I would really like to pull these guys out and give the others a chance at not being trampled and a little more room, but I don’t know if it would be safe to do that with so many pips.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I now have 5 chicks running around in the incubator, and 5 more pipped! I would really like to pull these guys out and give the others a chance at not being trampled and a little more room, but I don’t know if it would be safe to do that with so many pips.

The NR360 returns to humidity very quickly but what I do as a precaution is I wait for a fresh chick to hatch and then I grab all of the dry chicks quickly and put them in the brooder. Nothing returns the overall humidity in the incubator to perfect levels as well as a freshly hatched wet chick. Lol

 

[Willow2253]

The NR360 returns to humidity very quickly but what I do as a precaution is I wait for a fresh chick to hatch and then I grab all of the dry chicks quickly and put them in the brooder. Nothing returns the overall humidity in the incubator to perfect levels as well as a freshly hatched wet chick. Lol

Great, thanks! I do have one freshly hatched so I just have to turn on the heat in the brooder and then I’ll grab the chicks.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I now have 5 chicks running around in the incubator, and 5 more pipped! I would really like to pull these guys out and give the others a chance at not being trampled and a little more room, but I don’t know if it would be safe to do that with so many pips.

I grabbed out chicks too because they were really kicking the other eggs around, and the pipped eggs were fine. Just be quick.

 

[Willow2253]

Number 6 is zipping out now, so I’m going to grab 1-5 once that one is done. The brooder is all ready, I’m excited to get them out.

 

[EarlJ]

The pip wasn't in the air cell area...
I'm mostly worried that the "pip" is really just a seam. I'm not sure any air can get through such a narrow gap, considering how thick their shells are.

 

[Willow2253]

Here’s the first 5, there are two more that just made it out and 3 more are pipped still.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

The pip wasn't in the air cell area...
I'm mostly worried that the "pip" is really just a seam. I'm not sure any air can get through such a narrow gap, considering how thick their shells are.

It's not uncommon for pips to look like this initially even with chicken chicks but guineas look a bit different when they're hatching from what I've seen from others posts (I don't have first hand experience with guineas, YET!). If you're really concerned, you can remove a small piece of shell where the pip is but you'll need to be very very careful if you do because it's not in the air cell and the outer membrane and inner membrane (with the blood vessels) will be touching, so it's easier to cause a bleed. If that happens just have a q-tip ready and apply gentle pressure to stop the bleeding before putting it back in the incubator.

Or you can wait and see what happens! This is my upsidedown chick that just hatched on it's own and I have another malposition that is the last egg in the incubator right now that I'm considering assisting. I usually wait until the end of a hatch before I get concerned about anything though. Good luck!

 

[EarlJ]

Went to assist, and it was already dead.

I don't know how it was even able to produce the pip it did.

Turned toward the foot on the left/beak side.

Well, 2 hatched, 3 to go then. They're all making progress. If they make it - at this point I'd be surprised if they didn't - that'll be 5/12 from shipped eggs : /

As long as there's a male and female among them... which we'll probably find out in the spring.

There's 8 chicken eggs in there too. No pips on those yet. It was like that last time too. Guineas just can't wait to get out and menace the world with their screeching : D