Help First Time Hatcher!!

[MarionIN4Chickens]

Hi! I recently started hatching my first group of 72 eggs. Out of 72 on day 14 I candled and 51 were fertile and growing well. I locked down the incubator at 99.5 F and 65-70% humidity. At 6 pm last night we had four pips on day 18. Since then we have had 6 successfully hatch and have 11 more pipped. Two of the first to pip are still not hatched and seem to just be slowly making the holes bigger and I can only see feathers through the holes. I am worried they turned away from the pips and got stuck somehow. What’s the likelihood these two little babies make successful hatches?

 

[Nabiki]

It's hard to say. It can take 24 hours from pip to zip, but if they're just making the hole bigger, it sounds like they're in trouble. Do you have pictures?

IF you choose to assist, be aware that most chicks that have trouble hatching are having trouble because something is wrong with them. There is a chance that the chick will be okay if you help, but there is a larger chance that the chick will pass away on its own or worse, need to be culled.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

 

[MarionIN4Chickens]

It's hard to say. It can take 24 hours from pip to zip, but if they're just making the hole bigger, it sounds like they're in trouble. Do you have pictures?

IF you choose to assist, be aware that most chicks that have trouble hatching are having trouble because something is wrong with them. There is a chance that the chick will be okay if you help, but there is a larger chance that the chick will pass away on its own or worse, need to be culled.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

I haven’t taken any photos I’ll attach some later. It looks like the toes are sticking out one of the pips. I’m pretty worried

 

[MarionIN4Chickens]

It's hard to say. It can take 24 hours from pip to zip, but if they're just making the hole bigger, it sounds like they're in trouble. Do you have pictures?

IF you choose to assist, be aware that most chicks that have trouble hatching are having trouble because something is wrong with them. There is a chance that the chick will be okay if you help, but there is a larger chance that the chick will pass away on its own or worse, need to be culled.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

The egg I’m most worried about is this one. You can see feathers through the membrane and through the pip hole. They’ve been pipped for about 28 hours now and the hole has gotten bigger and you can see the chick moving a little bit through the membrane but no progress. The other egg is now zipping so thank goodness for that

 

[MarionIN4Chickens]

It's hard to say. It can take 24 hours from pip to zip, but if they're just making the hole bigger, it sounds like they're in trouble. Do you have pictures?

IF you choose to assist, be aware that most chicks that have trouble hatching are having trouble because something is wrong with them. There is a chance that the chick will be okay if you help, but there is a larger chance that the chick will pass away on its own or worse, need to be culled.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

As a little update the one that started zipping last night hatched with the worst case of wry neck I’ve ever seen so that explains that. It needed culled unfortunately but the other egg just successfully hatched and seems perfectly healthy. A few more hatched in the night so we have had a total of 12 hatch with the one needing culled.

 

[Nabiki]

As a little update the one that started zipping last night hatched with the worst case of wry neck I’ve ever seen so that explains that. It needed culled unfortunately but the other egg just successfully hatched and seems perfectly healthy. A few more hatched in the night so we have had a total of 12 hatch with the one needing culled.

Congratulations! Remember to post pics. Hatching never grows old.

 

[MarionIN4Chickens]

Congratulations! Remember to post pics. Hatching never grows old.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

View attachment 3817306 The egg I’m most worried about is this one. You can see feathers through the membrane and through the pip hole. They’ve been pipped for about 28 hours now and the hole has gotten bigger and you can see the chick moving a little bit through the membrane but no progress. The other egg is now zipping so thank goodness for that

can you see the beak? is it moving like its eating/ yawning?

 

[MarionIN4Chickens]

can you see the beak? is it moving like its eating/ yawning?

It ended up hatching very early this morning and is a different color than all the rest interestingly enough. The one I was less worried about ended up hatching as well but had some unfixable issues and needed to be culled sadly. You can see the one I am talking about in this comment is circled! Its color pattern is interesting. The rest I’m pretty sure are all pharaoh but I don’t know about this one

 

[scyllarus]

Looks like you might have a tuxedo chick! The color shouldn't have contributed to its hatching difficulties.

...this is making me realize most of my "pharoah" guesses on my current hatch are probably roux or rosetta. Only one chick so far is yellow and black, most of mine are brown/black.

It might be worth incubating at a slightly higher temp next time. Some people say it makes for more vigorous chicks - personally I've had more luck setting my incubator at 100.5 (but I've also have changes in roos, seasonal changes, etc, so who knows?) If nothing else, they hatch faster. Mine are on day 16 and most are pipped.