I need some advice

[chapman1heather]

My daughter bought an inexpensive incubator from tractor supply. She just wanted to try this. The eggs are 21 days today and we saw cracks yesterday and some peeping. I just checked and one is cracked enough I see feathers but its not doing anything and the peeps are faint. What do we do? Just wait or does that mean the one is basically dead or going to die? The temps have fluctuated a little not sure why and not sure how often since we have work and school. Thanks in advance

 

[FarmerMac]

How is the humidity? Did you increase the humidity before lockdown?

 

[AmyLynn2374]

A pipped egg can take up to 24 hours before zipping (or it can take a matter of 6-7 hours). As earlier poster said, make sure that your humidity is up at least 65% (I prefer 75% as I am a meddler). Once the egg starts zipping it should be out in a mater of minutes-half hour. If it stalls for more than a half hour, my personal philosophy is to help.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

It's always better to wait some and let them come out on their own. If you did not up the humidity in the incubator what can occur is the humidity spikes due to all the pipping of eggs then drys back out which can stick the chicks to the shell. By upping the humidity in incubator for hatch time you stop that from happening. If you didn't fill one or both of the troughs in bottom of incubator do so now.

Chicks rest after pipping shells for some time, exhausting work to turn around in shell then pip. So give them that 12+ hours to come out on their own. If they are not progressing by then you probably need to aid them. It's careful work with tweezers to fleck shell off and if they are dry adding 100F water to moisten up the album again. Care not to put water in face and I've had them so glued that after most of shell is off need to soak in bowl of water (head out) to loosen everything up enough to remove shell that's left and the glue off butts (so they can poop).

I gave more info than you likely need and the intent was not to panic rather to give a heads up of what to expect if you do need to aid them eventually. But resting up to 24 hours after pip before starting to zip is normal.

 

[gorillamama]

A pipped egg can take up to 24 hours before zipping (or it can take a matter of 6-7 hours). As earlier poster said, make sure that your humidity is up at least 65% (I prefer 75% as I am a meddler). Once the egg starts zipping it should be out in a mater of minutes-half hour. If it stalls for more than a half hour, my personal philosophy is to help.

What should you do to help a chick that doesn't complete zipping? I have one that's taken way longer and am getting antsy. It's still cheeping moving and trying to get out it's just slow going

 

[AmyLynn2374]

What should you do to help a chick that doesn't complete zipping? I have one that's taken way longer and am getting antsy. It's still cheeping moving and trying to get out it's just slow going

If it's zipping and has a good amount of egg zipped, I just carefully seperate the ends. If they don't have much of a zip line and they are stalled I would chip a zip line in the shell with tweezers, but if you haven't and you can, try to play some chick music motivation. I use this:

I start playing as soon as I notice they are zipping (which is usually as soon as they start as I am glued to the bator at hatch...lol) and play it back to back until they are pushed out and it usually doesn't take more than 15-20 minutes.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

What should you do to help a chick that doesn't complete zipping? I have one that's taken way longer and am getting antsy. It's still cheeping moving and trying to get out it's just slow going

BTW:

 

[gorillamama]

If it's zipping and has a good amount of egg zipped, I just carefully seperate the ends. If they don't have much of a zip line and they are stalled I would chip a zip line in the shell with tweezers, but if you haven't and you can, try to play some chick music motivation. I use this: I start playing as soon as I notice they are zipping (which is usually as soon as they start as I am glued to the bator at hatch...lol) and play it back to back until they are pushed out and it usually doesn't take more than 15-20 minutes.

Thank you for the advice! She had a good zip started so I carefully wet down the membrane showing, expanded her line and she immediately kicked out the rest of the way. Cheeping and drying out in the incubator now. My husband joked it was a chicken c-section and he should be taking video.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Thank you for the advice! She had a good zip started so I carefully wet down the membrane showing, expanded her line and she immediately kicked out the rest of the way. Cheeping and drying out in the incubator now. My husband joked it was a chicken c-section and he should be taking video.

Awesome! Congrats!