Help with shrink wrapped chick....

It takes longer than a few hours.
Now go sit on your hands. And look for the camera, and make sure the battery is charged.
Patience!
 
I'm in the same boat!!! I have three pipped and peeping but not zipping. Now going on 9 hours. Three already hatched without problems. One I helped because it was nearly out and membrane were plastered to it's head and leg. I'm trying to be hands off with the rest. I upped the humidity.
 
I have had chicks take over 24hrs from pip to hatch. One thing to check if they do take a long time (around 24 hrs.) is to make sure they are not stuck. I have had a couple that died after pipping and I didn't realize they were stuck. This was when I first started hatching. Many people have said do not help under any circumstances as they will die. I have since helped. I usually put a cloth and paper towel on a heating pad and have a dish of warm water and q-tips or I use my fingertip to keep the membrane soften while breaking off the shell. If the chick has pipped and you can't see the beak, I would carefully peal the shell without tearing the membrane around the line the chick would normally zip. Is there a hole where the chick has penetrated the membrane? Also there are two membranes an outer membrane which usually look white and an inner clear membrane where the blood vessels are. You could pick the shell on both sides of the pip and see if you can see the beak and moisten the membrane with warm water with either your fingertip or a Q-tip. If you see the beak and the chick is alive make sure it can breathe you may have to poke a small hole in the membrane where the beak is then put it back into the incubator to let it hatch itself.

I usually wait at least 24 hrs from pip before helping the chick zip and if it is stuck then I may help it hatch. You have to be very careful as the blood vessels may still be in tact and not dried enough and the chick can bleed to death. After I have zipped the shell if the chick isn't stuck, put it back in the incubator to finish hatching. You may want to put the egg in a moist paper towel or mist the egg. There are times when I have had to assist the chick hatch too but I try not to if I don't have to. They usually hatch out themselves. Sometimes they die but many live.

I have had eggs pip on the pointy end of the egg and some pip on the top of the big end of the eggs. They all hatched out fine unassisted.
 
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We are at 27 hours with no further progress. Could it be because they are a bit early hatching? I have 3 others pipped and i don't want to keep opening things up and messing the hatch up.
 
namastemama, have YOU slept much? I bet you're tired. Maybe as tired as that folded-up, squeezed-tight little chick has gotten, trying to escape the shell.

I think this is early and you need to go to a movie or take a nice long nap. <*said lovingly, not harshly*>

It takes a whole lot of effort for chicks to hatch. It really tires them out. I've had chicks REST for more than 24 hours after pipping. Do not hover so much because it adds to your worry, which makes you inflate it beyond necessary.

We all want every incubated egg to hatch successfully. Newbies to incubation anticipate too much, and if they've been reading "oh no, I've got a shrink-wrapped chick" or "chicks died in shell" posts they will naturally assume the first hitch in incubation get-along is one of those disasters.

Lockdown is three days. It can take three days to hatch a chick!
 

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