HELP!!! Chick Immobiel after 24 hours!

[MaranDude]

Ok so about a day ago one of the chicks pipped the egg and was going for a while and now its stopped. I took some pieces of shell off and I don't see anything.

Could it be stuck to the membrane and if so how can I fix that?

 

[MaranDude]

Ok so the first chick I took off enough inner membrane to see its beak and its notmoving. Is it dead!

 

[onthespot]

I would chip off more egg until you can see its beak tip. Wiggle that with your finger. If it doesn't respond, it is probably dead. I just pulled out two chicks that were the same way. One was barely alive, underdeveloped and would never have made it regardless, the other was alive and quite well. I pulled the shell off of him and put him back in the hatcher to finish drying off.

 

[MaranDude]

So the second one is peeping up a storm and I pulled off the inner membrane to its beak and its wiggling around bu its not getting anywhere. Should I help more?

 

[onthespot]

If it has already been pipped for 24 hours it has most likely absorbed the yolk already. If it hasn't, and the membrane still bleeds a lot when you try to take it out, don't feel bad. It probably will not hatch on its own, and you just do your best to help it out of the shell, Just go ahead and take it out and hold it in your hand. You can get a papaer towel wet with warm (not real warm, like 101 degrees) water, squeeze out all the dripping water and wrap the egg up in that inside your heand while you slowly break away small bits of shell as it comes loose bit by bit. Once you get it out, just set it back in the hatcher and leave it alone as if it had hatched out all by itself. If it has some yolk still unabsorbed, take a good look at it. I have had good outcome if the yolk is more than half absorbed, all bad outcomes if there is more than half the yolk outside. Hope this helps.

 

[MaranDude]

Thank you so much for your help. But one more question.

It is now moving and trying to put its beak through the penny sized hole that we made for it after it pipped for about 10 hours and We see it struggling. Should we keep on breaking more shell off?

 

[onthespot]

I would just go ahead and keep chipping away shell unless it starts to bleed. At this point, all the rules about "hands off" are out the window. If you leave him be he will most likely die. Just keep picking away the shell and SLOWLY pulling the membrane. If he is struggling like he is trying to push out, he is probably ready to come out. If he is just lying there breathing and not trying to stretch out, he is not quite ready.

 

[MaranDude]

Ok so it's starting to bleed a bit. Should I wait for the veins to dry up now?

 

[onthespot]

Yes, wrap the other end of the shell in a damp, warm paper towel and put it back in the incubator for a few hours at least. Three or four I would say. Feel free to keep looking in on it and if it looks like the membrane is shrink wrapping the chick, pull a bit more back and put it back in the bator. Leave as much of the shell intact as you can, it will help the rest of it from shrink wrapping.

 

[BeautifulBlue]

I'd leave it for a couple of hours, then go back and see if it's made any progress. If it's not absorbed all it's yolk and bleeds then it's not ready to hatch