I am hatching 24 pheasant eggs for a friend. Started out with 30, lost 6 to non-development. So today is day 23 which is the normal hatch day for pheasants. Yesterday morning I woke to one pip. By the end of yesterday there were 6 pips and no progress in the first pip. I went to bed. My humidity is at 70% with 6-10 sponges in the bator around the eggs and water in the water wells. It's LG bator. Even with all the sponges I can't get the humidity higher than that. I got up this morning and there was still no progress with the first pip, which has now exceeded 24 hours. So I removed some of just the shell around where the chick should be zipping. It's is alive and chirping, but making no effort to zip. I now have 10 pips total and none from yesterday have made any progress. The longer they take, the more worried I get. The woman I am hatching these for is counting on them. The only thing different from this hatch than any of the others I have done is that these are pheasants, the membrane is thicker on these and I layed the eggs down to hatch, after being set fat end up in a egg washing tray. I was advised to remove them from the egg tray for hatching so their legs didn't get caught in the holes. I feel like I am doing all I can for a successful hatch, but I'm worried...frustrating that I have had pips for 24 hours with no progress...I think the thick membrane could be an issue...
