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]

Update: added more water and it's at 69% and rising now. I used a bright torch to look at bub and the surface of the potential elbow appears quite shiny - is that shrink wrapped membrane I'm looking at or is that normal? I'll try to take a pic of the shine as best I can. I seen some people wrap a wet paper towel around their pipped eggs to try and help but I'm worried I'll drop the humidity again lifting the lid to do that, hopefully I'm just over thinking things but it's so hard not to want to help this little one if it needs it!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

70% Humidity will drown the chick. Pretty sure that's the beak with fluid in it means it's probably dead. Sorry.

 

[OneFowlMama]

70% Humidity will drown the chick. Pretty sure that's the beak with fluid in it means it's probably dead. Sorry.

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.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Yes it shouldn't be over 60% Humidity for chicken eggs at lockdown, 45% Humidity while incubating. Unfortunately this happened to me when I was learning many years ago all the babies had drowned in the egg, fully formed.

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[slordaz]

Have you read already on assisting, that will take a bit just in case you need to. Sometimes they get externally pipped then need to sleep as it's such hard work just getting that external pip. can't find the learning center for some reason so tagging some people that are pretty good resources.

One thing to remember people is location and where the eggs came from make a big difference in what is needed or not.

@ridgrunner
@PD-Riverman

 

[OneFowlMama]

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?

I haven't seen any movement or heard any peeps from the egg, I've had baby chick sounds playing in the room to try and encourage it out but if BirdsBeesTrees is right then I'm going to assume it was drowned before I woke up which is why it hasn't moved. I haven't touched it at all as I read it can take up to 24 hours for them to regain strength to start zipping but when I searched about pips with no movement it came up with low humidity shrink wrapping and since my humidity had dropped down earlier I was worried. I just peeped a corner of the incubator lid up and it's sitting on 60% now, the temperature is still a steady 37.5 and the other 5 are still not showing any external pips yet. I'll leave the other bub in there in case by a miracle it is okay but as it's my first time with so many different links to what humidity to set I'm just more worried than a fly in a Web!

 

[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.