2 frizzled hatched today. Only one egg left from my original batch, doubtful it hatches as air cell was wonky from day one.
I wanted to share what happened to an EE that hatched a couple days ago in case it helps someone. The chick had pipped and then after a rest started zipping. For some reason it zipped out a huge chunk of egg, almost the size of a quarter right were the pip hole was. You could clearly see the chick, but there was not enough shell gone so that he could escape.
I waited for hours, watching and waiting for it to finish zipping but it never moved. It's peeps got real loud and distressed sounding. The membrane of the egg appeared to be drying.
What to do? I know you should never help them hatch, but this wasn't a normal situation. Ugh, I came to BYC and after much searching and reading finally found a comment that if a pip is too large the chick can get shrink wrapped in the egg due to too much oxygen entering the shell.
I grabbed the egg and sure enough it was dry and the chick sticky. I started wetting the membrane with my fingers and a qtip. After several sessions of taking it out and putting it back to get warm, I was able to zip the outer shell myself and leave the membrane intact. All while I'm doing this the chick is pushing trying to get free. He almost hatched in my hand
but I stuck it back in 'bator and waited for him to hatch himself.
The chick was a sticky mess, I ended up wetting him down with a wet paper towel to get some of the gunk off. There is still some stuck down fluff, but mostly he is normal.
Anyway...since it looks like the chick is going to live, I thought this might help someone else out. I don't advocate helping chicks too weak to hatch themselves. This was an unusual situation with so much egg popping off while zipping.
Now that leaves me with 4 eggs going. I candled again tonight (Day 12) and all 4 are about the same growth wise and air sacks are doing good! I didn't see any movement because my flash light isn't the brightest
