Hatch assisting - looks like a pale dried apricot inside, but still breathing.

[Laurieston]

Having been reading along with great interest we are now at the end of our 21 days. Well, actually 23 now. And, I have a question.

Only about half of my eggs have hatched, the first on day 20, and still the rest are doing nothing. The last that hatched, this morning was pipped for almost 28 hours before it came out (with a little help getting the shell off from me). I fear it has been too dry and the membranes and shells are so hard. Last night I candled to check if I could see anything, and they all have good airsack, but then there is what looks like another, bigger, area which the light goes through, before the chick appears. No movement to be sees in any of them however. So, this afternoon I took the plunge (my mistake) and knocked, listened, candled, no internal pipping, nothing. Carefully I opened a little hole all is dry inside, nothing to see or hear. I open a hatch so to speak, and the lid comes off, inside I see the chick behind the inner membrane, looking like a pale dried apricot, breathing! There is no beak to see, I can make out the head and therefore guess where the beak is behind the wing.

I am assuming that this is the so called 'shrink-wrapping' and maybe this is why so many have not come out yet. Maybe they are all like this inside.

What do I do?

 

[Rainkore]

I would suggest taking a wet q-tip and carefully trying to wet the membrane. It helps especially to wet it since you’ll probably have to slowly peel it off of the chick. At this point I would recommend making a small hole to see who’s dried out, and helping the ones who are. If anybody is too dried out, you may have to put them down. If anybody is let out too early (since you will probably have to help them out) putting them in a small box or wrapping up their stomachs till they absorb their yolk to make sure it isn’t accidentally ripped out will help. Good luck!

 

[Laurieston]

So here is the chick. I have wet the membrane and it became see-through. Chick now visible. Quickly the membrane went opaque again, dried I guess. Can someone who knows about such things say whether this chick is ready to come out, just somehow stuck, or is it simply not ready yet and I need to wait. What you cannot see here is how the membrane is like a vaccum packed around the chick. Before breaking the membrane I would like to be a little sure, as it seems a very dramatic thing to do.
I have read and re-read the Step by Step Guide to ASSISTED Hatching on this forum, but it seemed to be when a chick did not make an external pip. Mine are not making internal ones, yet?

 

[2 many chickens]

Is the membrane broken? Or is it in tact? Did this chick externally pip before you took the cap off?

 

[2 many chickens]

You can apply a little bit of neosporin without pain relief to the membrane to keep it moist longer than water would. Away from the face of the chick though

 

[Laurieston]

the membrane is still intact. I opened it because I thought the eggs were all dead inside, and wanted to see what they looked like inside. It was actually the second I opened, the first looked like a hard boiled egg, just yellowish yoke and nothing else, this second one was, well like this.

I am now thinking that maybe this one will eventually try to make an internal pip and is just not yet ready, but am very unsure. Some of the other eggs opened more than 48 hours ago. Maybe I need to wait longer and see. There is another egg of the same breed just next to this one, which I guess, is in a similar situation to this one; at least it has also not pipped.

I am worrying about whether they will die (even if they are still alive just now, like this one) because they are too dry inside and cannot get out. Or maybe they are not ready yet, even after 23 days now.

Any tips?

ps: neosporin I do not have, but I could keep the membrane damp with water if that helps.

 

[Rainkore]

Maybe if you opened a very small hole in the membrane near the head so they can open it farther if they want to? With my ducklings when they hatched they were dried out similar to this and we cut a small hole for them and they waited till they were ready. If you have the time wetting it when it dries out helps a lot. Just be careful not to cut the veins.