I had two pips this morning (around 9am), and now (about 11 hrs later) I can tell they are still alive, but the have not progressed at all. Should I be worried, and if so, at what point should I intervene? I was thinking if they have not hatched by morning, I will help them along. I just don't want to get up in the morning and find them trapped and dead.
FWIW, I did not expect any pips this early. This is day 19, more like day 18.5, since I set them in the evening.
They can take 24 hours or more to fully emerge from the shell from first pip. Some chicks hatch really fast and others really slow. It is best to avoid opening the incubator once eggs are pipped. As long as humidity is ok, the chick should be able to hatch fine on its own. If you intervene too soon, you risk an unabsorbed yolk. If you do it too late, the chick is often deformed (and probably shouldn't have hatched in the first place). It's a personal decision when you think it's right to intervene, however I don't encourage it.
Hmm, I was thinking it could take up to 24 hours, but it could take longer? How long is too long? Can I wait a couple days as long as the humidity is good, or would they run into some kind of problem being pipped that long?
With my first hatch, most of them took a full 24 hours to get from pip to zip. Many would pip and happily wait and rest there and then when ready would charge full steam ahead zipping themselves out
Dont worry and just wait, they'll probably be just charging thier batteries for the big charge
I know most people here are going to tell you to be patient and wait. Yes, mother nature should be allowed her share of say in the matter, and waiting can be a good course of action. Yes, the chick might be ok if you just leave it alone. It might pip and zip and hatch just fine. But it also might not.
I'm not saying my example is a good one, but I go by 'up to' 24 hours. If they pip and haven't started doing anything else by then, I'm in there. Because if I am honest, my incubator isn't perfect, I'm not perfect, conditions are never perfect. It might die not because that's how it's supposed to be, but because of some condition that should have been different. It may be because your humidity was too low. Or too high. Or they got positioned wrong. Or they were too big to turn right. Or.... well, there's a lot that can go wrong with hatching.
A lot of people are afraid to help for causing more problems. Blood isn't something such tiny critters have a lot of, and it can be scary to see if you mess up- and a lot of people (reasonably) don't want to take the blame if the chick dies while they happen to be helping. I don't have that fear and I personally consider the chance of killing a chick to be less than that of saving a chick through intervention at hatch time. So in the end, you make a decision.
If you're willing to take the risk of possible harm and live with the consequences if you mess up, then you help when-ever you feel comfortable. If you don't want part in the blame if something goes wrong, you say "nature's decision" and you leave them be.
And yes, I'm aware not everyone agrees with me on this... I'm the odd bird out on this, but I've saved more lives than I've condemned.
I agree with Kedreeva I help out after 24 hr or when I have that feeling that something isn't quite right. I had one last weekend that I wish I would have help along as I felt he got turned around by the hatchlings starting to move and roll the egg. My uncle who has raised chicks forever often helped some along and I don't recall many if any dieing. If you do what feels right I don't think you'll be sorry no matter the out come.
Thanks for your replies! One of them is actually making some progress now. If I don't see any progress with the other one by morning, I will likely intervene. Artificial incubation is not a natural process, and as such the margin for human error is great. Last year I lost half my hatch because they got stuck in their eggs. I ended up saving a couple of them, but for the rest it was too late. They were all perfectly developed, just got stuck due to low humidity. I think I will stick to the 24 hr time frame.
