Please Help! Chirping, then no chirping. Should I help?

[ziggy7777]

I'm really new here and new to all this! I have 6 chicken eggs in an incubator, today is day 21. Two days ago I heard chirping from the incubator. I checked very quickly today, as there was no more chirping and no external pips and the air cells in all eggs are now pretty big (I think bigger than average), two chicks have definitely pipped internally. I don't know when however as I can't tell where the chirping was coming from two days ago and I don't know if I should be thinking of helping them with a safety hole or not...?!

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Do not interfere at this point. Waiting is the hardest part!
Good luck with your hatch!

 

[ziggy7777]

Thank you!!

Just when I was beginning to panic as we're heading to day 22, two tiny external pips appeared on two eggs!!! I am soooo relieved and excited!!!!!

 

[Jan and the flock]

Good for you! It's really hard not to be tempted to interfere at the last moment, but it can take up to three days for the chicks to go from chirping inside the egg to breaking out. They communicate with the brooch hen for days before they hatch. If you interfere you could actually cause the death of the chick, you could cause the chick to bleed to death...just before they pup and zip out of the shellshell, the remainder of the yoke sack is drawn into the chicks abdomen, leaving a tiny umbilical cord out side the chicks belly. If the chick hatches before the home is safely "absorbed" the tension on the umbilical cord during the hatch can cause the yoke and possibly a portion of the intestines to end up outside the chicks body. Another thing is that there is a web of blood vessels in the walls of the sack encasing the chick during its development within the egg, these carry oxygen to the developing chick. These blood vessels continue to provide oxygen to the chick until just before it pips...They shut down and "shrivel up" as the chick struggles to break out. ". If the chick is assisted and hatches out to soon..and..these blood vessels haven't " shriveled up" they will bleed! Few chicks survive if hatches before these important things happen. Believe me! I speak from experience....I now leave them alone! Remember to provide the proper humidity within the incubator! It is essential to keep the inner membrane from drying out before the chick can get out of it.....it can dry in place and suffocate the chick even if the chick has managed to pop the half of the shell off .....there is nothing so sad as finding a half hatched chick encased in the remains of the inner membrane shrunk and dried.

 

[chickens really]

Possibly the ones passed if you heard Peeps two days ago

 

[Banditschickens]

 

[Stacyoung13]

 

[ziggy7777]

Thank you so much!!

Jan I had no idea about the possible complications of helping, thank you for the warning! Sitting around doing nothing and waiting is very difficult, but I don't want to cause problems for them!!

Yes I think that's probably true re the ones from a few days ago. There's now four (!!!) eggs with external peeps, but two without so perhaps that's them.

Humidity's shot up to 83%. Should I half open the incubator lid to bring it down a bit or still do nothing? Could the 83% humidity hurt them?!! They haven't started zipping at all yet, not even the two that pipped last night!

 

[cmom]

I agree with the others. I wouldn't worry about the humidity. What kind of an incubator do you have? If you have plugs in your incubator you can take one out. The chicks need the humidity to move around in their shells. Some chicks hatch out shortly after they pip and some take quite awhile to hatch. Good luck and have fun...

 

[ziggy7777]

Hi Cmom and thank you so much for that!

I have this incubator:


The only air holes it's got are the little tiny hols in the yellow plastic; I don't know if you can see them? That's why I was wondering about lifting the lid a bit really! Brilliant! So they could hatch anytime within 24 hours of pipping externally, but if they cross 24 hours they're in trouble?!

Thanks again!! It's sooo tricky to be a newbie with all this!!