Orpington Pipped

[rllupien]

I've got a OP that pipped about 14 hours ago and it hasn't made any progress but is still breathing. The chick seems like it's head is upside down... and there seems like there's a lot of moisture or liquid in there. Is that normal?

 

[Erka97]

I'm not sure what you mean by the head being upside-down, but it is supposed to be under one of the wings with the beak towards the shell. Fourteen hours isn't extreme if it's only pipped, some wait almost 24 hours between that and zipping their way out for their blood vessels to shut down in the egg membrane and their yolk to absorb into their bodies.
If you are extremely worried about it, perhaps about it drowning in any liquids you can open up that hole a little more, moisten the membrane with water or coconut oil, and make sure the fluids don't get in the beak and see if the blood vessels have shut down yet. If they have, they'll look very thin, otherwise they'll be plump with blood.

 

[rllupien]

Hmm. I'm not sure how to explain it. Basically the beak you can see in the pic is upside down. The part on top is actually the lower beak.

 

[Erka97]

I can't decide whether that's normal or not.. I'd give it a few more hours, then make the opening bigger to get a look at the membrane and blood vessels.
It's generally between 12 and 24 hours from pip to zip for chickens.

 

[rllupien]

Thanks! I opened the pip bigger (the inner membrane was completely pulled away from the egg) and I can see a fair amount of veins in the inner membrane. So I'm leaving it alone.

 

[Erka97]

Yeah, it usually takes quite a while for those to go down. You'll still be able to see them somewhat once they're shut down, but they'll look thin and a bit like threads. Just keep the membrane moist and hopefully the chick will get itself out after that.

 

[rllupien]

Yeah, it usually takes quite a while for those to go down. You'll still be able to see them somewhat once they're shut down, but they'll look thin and a bit like threads. Just keep the membrane moist and hopefully the chick will get itself out after that.

I hope so! This is the only one that looks like it's going to hatch out of 6 shipped eggs. Only two made it to lockdown.