Help, please! Is he dead?

[flopsy]

About lunchtime yesterday another chick started pipping. In 5 hours it will be about 24 hours and he's not out. Apparently quit. Hear no sound from him. Open incubator? Leave him to rot? What do I do? 8 more eggs inside and one live chick. He had started pipping to left, but seems to have just quit.

 

[Three Cedars Silkies]

It's such a hard decision and you will get as many opinions as folks who will post.

You run the risk of compromising the remaining eggs due to loss of humidity if you open the bator.

Sometimes I take the egg out and checked to see if the chick is alive. Sometimes I just leave it and see what happens. After they pip, they will sometimes go back to sleep and rest while getting ready for "the big zip".

One thing you know...if it's pipped, it has plenty of air to breathe.

 

[flopsy]

Ty, oldtimegator, I've got one live chick in there and want to put them under a broody hen that hatched some eggs about a week before these to see if she will raise them. This is first time I've used bator. Have only used broodies. Today is second day of hatch (yesterday was "hatch date"). No other eggs seeem to be doing anything. Guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow or next day to see if anything happens, right?

 

[rcentner]

In my recent (last week or so) experience.....The 1st egg pipped and I read not to help them and it could take 24 hours for them to get out of the shell, I waited 24hours and opened the shell to find a dead chick. I waited until today for more eggs to hatch. I was gonna throw them away today (as it is day 28) and our incubation was not precise on temp or humidity. However, I woke up this morning to a chick half way out and chirping! So...my guess is that if it pipped and hasn't come out, it may not make it. do what you can to keep the unhatched eggs consistant and remove the unhatched chick in 24hours. good luck!

 

[mulia24]

leave them alone and keep humidity high (over 70%) and temp stable.

sorry i can't practice what i'm suggesting.