Help! Chick pipped but not hatching!

[^_^ChickenCrew^_^]

Hi there,
I have a chicken egg under a broody hen, and in total there are 5 eggs. One has already hatched, and another pipped 8 hours ago. There were some loose bits of shell and the chick seemed to be struggling so we made the hole a little bigger and it seemed fine. On the already hatched chick there is a sharp, strong egg tooth, like our clutch last year, but the chick struggling has a really tiny, blunt egg tooth. It does not seem strong enoughto break though the shell, and also it is a maran egg and is really tough anyway.
The broody hen has been doing an amazing job , and we have already had a healthy chick hatch. Is there anything I can do, should I help it from the egg? If I do need to, how can I without the membrane bleeding?
Thanks,
Emma

 

[Asweet23]

If it's only been 8-10 hours since it pipped, there is still time. It can take up to a day for them to hatch after pipping. Just keep an eye on it to make sure the membrane isn't drying out.

As far as helping the them out...(after you see they are not going to make it on their own)....There are 2 schools of thought on this....1) leave it alone and let nature take it's course (because there might be a reason why it isn't hatching, or 2) after the chick has pipped and you see that the membrane is drying out, help it along by keeping it moist and removing tiny its of shell in hopes that it will be able to kick out on it's own.

Link to another post about it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/578198/pip-and-hatch-how-long

Goodluck!!
Angela from Sweet Valley Farm **2 yellow labs, 6 kitty cats, flock of 15 hens, 3 roo's, 7 chicks, 2 horses, 1 betta fish, 2 daughters, and 1 totally awesome husband who helps me out with all of this!**

 

[^_^ChickenCrew^_^]

Hi Angela,
Thank you for the quick reply, it was really useful. By the end of the day , the chick still hadn't hatched but we kept it damp with a wamp flannel and removed bits of the shell. It didn't seem strong enough to kick out of the membrane, and we couldn't leave it overnight as it would dry out. In the end we did gently help it out, it turned out to be a very large chcik in a small egg- it had no way of moving to break out. It was very weak, so we just left it under the broody hen in the hope it may recover over night. Came down this morning to check and found 3 chicks happily with mum! The chick was fine and another had hatched overnight.

Thank you for your advice, it meant a lot.
Emma

 

[chickfused]

I had one like that too, chick too big for space. He turned into a fine, beautiful rooster.