Pip but no movement - shrink wrapped?

[OneFowlMama]

I woke up this morning to see a pip in one of my eggs, super exciting! It looks as though it's the bubs elbow slightly sticking out of the pip hole.

It's been a few hours with no movement or peeps to be heard, the humidity was at a steady 70% so I left it be. I came back inside around an hour or so later and it had dropped to 55%, I quickly added water and it's sitting around 60-65% now. I might add a touch more in a minute to try and boost it back up a bit.

Its still in the same position with no movement or peeps, did this drastic drop in humidity shrink wrap my bub? This is my first time incubating and I'm so worried! My other 5 eggs have yet to make any pips, so I'm just sitting here waiting for a sign from any of them that they're okay. Any advice would be really appreciated! Pic attached is of the pipped bub in question.

 

[OneFowlMama]

I'm glad someone agrees with me, as a hatching newbie I thought I might be talking out of my a**. It's great to hear someone else shares the opinion that being hands on in regards to the hatching process is good.



Is there any chance that the next time you go to top the water up etc, you could quickly candle an egg or two? That is what I would personally do, making sure to put the lid right back on while you are doing the candling. That way you will know what stage your chicks are at, so you can time when you assist the hatch (if you choose to do that of course).

I'll see how the humidity levels go tonight, I still have the corner propped up to keep it at 61% so depending what happens once I take it out if I need to add more water I'll try and give it a go, hopefully the little ones can just give me some sort of sign they're okay before then! The prospect of already having lost one bub is hard but the thought of the other 5 lost in the great unknown right now is even harder!

 

[OneFowlMama]

Thank you! A successful hatch is such a wonderful experience, I really hope your little ones don't make you wait too long and they don't end up needing assistance!

I would also take the chance and candle when you can do so in a good environment (that's just me though). I'm lucky in that I have an incubator where I can position my eggs to be able to candle through the viewing window without having to open my incubator so I usually know when they internally pip and if something seems off.

My new bator has two windows in it as well so hopefully my next batch will be alot easier to observe, I'll ask my sister today if I can grab her humidifier to prep the room for the potential candling tonight. Lucky for me we live on the same farm so I don't have to journey far to get it and she'll be able to assist if she needs to!

 

[LynnaePB]

I agree that it looks like a beak with fluid/white around it, it kind of looks yellowish so maybe even yolk?

70% humidity during lockdown has been great for my hatches, if humidity was too high throughout incubation there is definitely the possibility of chicks drowning after pipping due to not enough moisture being lost during incubation. What humidity did you incubate at for the first 18 days and do you have a calibrated hygrometer?

I'm sorry about your baby if it did indeed pass (I hope it didn't though)! Incubating can be difficult, I hope your remaining eggs make it for you.

 

[OneFowlMama]

I agree that it looks like a beak with fluid/white around it, it kind of looks yellowish so maybe even yoke?

70% humidity during lockdown has been great for my hatches, if humidity was too high throughout incubation there is definitely the possibility of chicks drowning after pipping due to not enough moisture being lost during incubation. What humidity did you incubate at for the first 18 days and do you have a calibrated hygrometer?

I'm sorry about your baby if it did indeed pass (I hope it didn't though)! Incubating can be difficult, I hope your remaining eggs make it for you.

I have a tried and tested hygrometer and thermoter in the incubator, throughout the first 18 days it sat oh a solid 40-45% aside from 2 days with storms where it did rise up to 60% for around 5 hours on both days. The temperature has been a little fluctuated but regularly steady all throughout and the air cells had the right growth from all the videos and charts I followed. Hopefully little bub is okay, I guess only time will tell. Today is day 20 so here's hoping for the other 5 little ones.

 

[OneFowlMama]

Don't be so hard on yourself we all learned from our mistakes. once you get it figured out for your area and get good hatch rates and are comfortable with your knowledge you'll come to realize sometimes some chicks just don't make it for some reason, be it flock nutrition of the parents, genetics, incubator issues etc, to many variables. hoping you have a good hatch though with no further stress.

Thank you so much for all your help and kindness, I came into this knowing there was a chance I could end up with no bubs and trying to be prepared for that scenario but being in the midst of it is a lot easier on paper and harder on the heart. I've already learnt so much from all of this, from accidental yolk pipping through to when I need to be more proactive in taking action or let things be. All I can do is be thankful for these lessons and hope that at the end of the day I have a bub to be grateful for. If not this time around then hopefully the next, it's all in the hands of time now so I can only pray those hands are healing and gracious.

 

[OneFowlMama]

I've set up the new incubator, I've decided to call it the lambo of incubators in comparison to my old one lol! It's heated up extremely fast and I can actually hear the fan motoring away strongly inside. I'll leave it for a while and check the temp against the thermometer I have inside as well as the humidity, here's hoping it all works good and my australorp eggs will have a happy ending in a few weeks time!

 

[OneFowlMama]

My 12 australorp egg babies have just gone into the lambo! I sterilised my digital thermometer but its readings changed by 3°, the old fashion dial thermometer I had in the incubator matched with the incubators readings exactly so I decided to trust it's readings, it's the most credited incubator by breeders in my country which is why I purchased it so even though I'm very nervous I'm just going to trust it and see how we go...

I haven't added water into it, but I did weigh each egg and mark the air cells before placing them into it so I'll take them out to candle on day 8 and see what the scale and candle says for weight loss and guage it from there. The hygrometer was reading between 18-20% humidity with no water with the lowest reading being 17% so we'll see. But I'd rather have too much cell growth than too little because as I now know I can just bump the humidity up on day 8 to equalise it better for the bubs needs. I don't want drowned chicks to be a problem again! Fingers crossed it all works out well, hopefully all the breeders recommendations are right and it's a machine that'll need little to no tinkering except lowering the temp during hatch... Time will tell. Thank you all so so so much for all the information, guidance and tips - hopefully with all this knowledge and lessons learnt I'll be a blessed mama in no time!

 

[2 many chickens]

Omg I was worried that might also be the case, I kept googling to figure out what humidity was the best and it seemed to be between 65-75 so I just sat it between 65-70 as that's what my incubator booklet said was the best to do. It's sitting at 68% now, should I try to lower it again? No other eggs have pipped yet but I'd like to get that sorted out before they do just in case. What humidity do you find to work the best? I feel so bad for my poor bub, I've been trying so hard to follow all the right steps but I guess I'll try to just take this as a learning curb and not beat myself up about it so hard, I just feel so awful.

Your humidity is fine. As chicks hatch, it will rise and drop again. I keep mine at 65 percent at lockdown and at hatch.
I've had chicks hatch and the humidity raised to almost 80 and others were in the process of hatching. They hatched fine and didn't drown.
What makes you think this chick is dead? Can you see its beak moving or hear anything coming from inside your incubator?

 

[OneFowlMama]

It sounds like your humidity was good, tracking air cell growth is the most important thing in my opinion (since environment can really affect what humidity is best to use). If it is yolk in the picture like I'm guessing it might be then it was probably just a very sad accident, I've never had it happen to my hatching eggs personally but I have heard of chicks accidentally rupturing their yolk sac and drowning. Hopefully your other little ones make it for you, it sounds like you are doing everything right!

I never even knew that could happen! Is there anything I can do to make sure the other bubs don't do the same if that is the case? When I candled them on day 18 their development looked spot on to everything I researched so I'm hoping the others are all okay.