Help. Day 23. Are the chicks shrink wrapped? No hatches in 16, but 2 external pips, with no progress?

[Pelops]

I'm a newby. I have 16 mixed chicken eggs in the incubator. There's been no progress till this morning, when one externally pipped, though outside the air sack.

I read it needs 48 hours to digest the yolk before zipping. Is that's right?

Then a second pipped 5 hours ago, though I couldn't see a proper hole, just a break in the shell. I'm worried that all 16 may be shrink wrapped, that's why they've not hatched.

I candled them on day 18 and all were moving but I've just candled two others. I don't see any movement and one of them is towards the tip of the egg, away from the egg sack. Does this sound like a shrink wrapped chick?

It's 11pm here in Bulgaria. I'll stay up to assist if I can. What should I do?

I have tweezers and cotton buds, no vasaline or coconut oil. Will olive oil work?

Can someone please help and let me know? Thanks

 

[Pelops]

The incubator temperature fluctuatad a bit before lockdown on day 18but I'm guessing the average was around 37C, which I'm thinking wouldn't be enough to delay hatching by 2 days?

I upped humidity to 60% on day 18, as there are also Maran eggs in. First thing in the morning of the 19th about 7.30am, I found the humidity had dropped to 34, so I upped it to 68 immediately but by then, it had not been 7 hours. Could this be the problem?

 

[MountainWoman73]

I'm not an expert, but I've done this a little bit. I don't know at all why your days are off, but if two are pipping I wouldn't give up hope. It's normal for them to take a 12-hour "nap" after pipping, before starting to zip. If you don't see further progress in 20-24 hours after pip, you might consider assisting. Start by just slightly enlarging the hole, then put it back and give it more time. You can also scratch gently around the outline of the air cell to weaken it a little bit.

If it still hasn't made progress in another 12 hours, you can start slowly chipping and removing tiny pieces of shell in a circle around the air cell. You can moisten the exposed membrane with a little water or cooking oil. Go slow, don't remove a lot of shell, and if you see blood, stop. When I assisted one, we removed a little shell at a time and put it back in the incubator in between, and it ended up doing the last bit of hatching on its own.

Of course any time you open the incubator you risk shrink-wrapping the other chicks, so it's a cost-benefit decision only you can make. Try to take it out quickly and keep the humidity as high as you can.

There's a great video on here in a thread called "Is it possible to save this egg". I'll see if I can find it and link it.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Post in thread 'Is it possible to save this egg?'

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-it-possible-to-save-this-egg.1629480/post-27835514

 

[Pelops]

Thanks. I will have a look

 

[Pelops]

I've just checked a third egg. That too has the same problem as one of the others, where it's at the top of the egg and hasn't moved towards the air sack. There's also no movement in all the three I've candled which again makes me think they were stuck.

I won't take the chance in candling the others as I don't want to lower the humidity, so, as it's half past midnight, I've decided to leave it overnight and hope the two that have pipped survive the night.

I'm presently half way through day 23, so I'm not hopeful for the rest, we'll just have to see how it goes first thing in the morning.

Fingers crossed