Help! Eggs late to hatch. I started to open egg and theyre alive! Now what?!

[vtpoultrymama]

I have an incubator with just 2 chicken eggs and about 40 quail eggs that were set to hatch yesterday. All day yesterday, nothing happened. Overnight and so far today, nothing happened. No pips, nothing. So I did some research and a few people said to very carefully open the air sac end of a couple eggs, as they may have died. I opened the two chicken eggs, gently, about the size of a quarter each, on the air sac ends. Both have live moving chicks. I immediately put them back in, along with a dish of warm water to get the humidity back up. Temp/humidity are currently perfect and I can still see the chicks moving inside the eggs, through the holes. I did have some thermometer problems for the first couple weeks, which caused the incubator to run at only about 94 degrees, which I'm NOW reading, will cause a late hatch. I know helping them will likely kill them, but will leaving them with open shells be any better? I'm thinking I need to just not touch anything, as the membrane is not torn at all, so they're still safe and protected inside there. Is that correct? What should I do??

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I have an incubator with just 2 chicken eggs and about 40 quail eggs that were set to hatch yesterday. All day yesterday, nothing happened. Overnight and so far today, nothing happened. No pips, nothing. So I did some research and a few people said to very carefully open the air sac end of a couple eggs, as they may have died. I opened the two chicken eggs, gently, about the size of a quarter each, on the air sac ends. Both have live moving chicks. I immediately put them back in, along with a dish of warm water to get the humidity back up. Temp/humidity are currently perfect and I can still see the chicks moving inside the eggs, through the holes. I did have some thermometer problems for the first couple weeks, which caused the incubator to run at only about 94 degrees, which I'm NOW reading, will cause a late hatch. I know helping them will likely kill them, but will leaving them with open shells be any better? I'm thinking I need to just not touch anything, as the membrane is not torn at all, so they're still safe and protected inside there. Is that correct? What should I do??

I'm a bit confused here. Chicken eggs and quail eggs have wildly different hatch times. Quail can be anywhere from 16-18 days, while chickens are 21 days. Were you expecting them both to hatch the same day?

Also leave the ones you've opened. If you rush them now and take them out, they'll bleed out and will not have absorbed their yolks.

@Eggcessive
@sourland

 

[vtpoultrymama]

I'm a bit confused here. Chicken eggs and quail eggs have wildly different hatch times. Quail can be anywhere from 16-18 days, while chickens are 21 days. Were you expecting them both to hatch the same day?

Also leave the ones you've opened. If you rush them now and take them out, they'll bleed out and will not have absorbed their yolks.

@Eggcessive
@sourland

I'm a bit confused here. Chicken eggs and quail eggs have wildly different hatch times. Quail can be anywhere from 16-18 days, while chickens are 21 days. Were you expecting them both to hatch the same day?

Also leave the ones you've opened. If you rush them now and take them out, they'll bleed out and will not have absorbed their yolks.

@Eggcessive
@sourland

Thank you! Yes, they both happened to be due to hatch at the same time, as the quail eggs were put in days later.

 

[vtpoultrymama]

Should i put anything over the open part of shell, like a wet paper towel? Just so the air doesnt dry out the membrane? Or just leave it as it is?

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Thank you! Yes, they both happened to be due to hatch at the same time, as the quail eggs were put in days later.

Ah okay! I see. I thought you put them in at the same time. I would just leave them alone in the bator and try not to open it at all to keep the humidity in. If you notice them getting really dry you can put a little bit of coconut oil on the membrane (not to much or you can suffocate the chick). I think a few others on here have also covered the holes before but I'm not sure on that. I tagged some others here to see if they can help too.

 

[vtpoultrymama]

Thank you Rosemary Duck!!

 

[LynnaePB]

I agree leaving them is probably the best thing to do at this point. Interfering before they have absorbed their yolk and blood vessels would almost definitely kill them. If they are very near hatching there is probably still a decent chance they'll be alright. This is a great assisting article that will hopefully help if you find they need it later and it has great information on determining how to safely help. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

I think I've heard of some eggshell repairs where people tried putting the shell of another egg over the damaged area but I haven't ever had to try that. Hopefully someone with more experience with that kind of thing will be able to answer better!

I have had to do plenty of assists where the membrane was exposed. I use water to moisten the membrane in these cases but it dries very quickly. I find I don't have to moisten the membrane if there is still some white/liquid between the chick and the membrane and I just leave it alone in those cases. Just watch to make sure the membrane isn't getting too dry. If you can still see through it and it isn't completely white it's probably best to leave it be. Coconut oil is great in that the membrane will stay see through once applied but be very careful to keep it moist once you've applied any. I've used if before and found if it dries up it hardens the membrane and it will stay hard even when more is applied (definitely not a good thing especially when the chick hasn't even internally pipped yet).

I've had to assist with internal pips before with some malpositioned chicks (they had already began switching over to respiratory breathing but just couldn't get through the membrane due to bad positioning). In these cases though they were still 24 hours or so from hatch the membrane being exposed at the air cell didn't end up hurting them. Hopefully your little guys aren't too far off from hatching and it won't end up hurting them either!

Good luck, I hope your chicks make it!