Quail Egg pipped through shell but not membrane

[HollyCharlotte23]

Hi All,
I have 4 quail eggs that made it through lockdown and is now on day 17 of incubation. Yesterday around 3pm one of the eggs had began to pip. The shell was slightly cracked. Overnight it increased in size (pip on shell) and all today the chick was active attempting to get out. It has now been nearly 30 hours since the first sight of the pip and the chick has only managed to break the shell, without piercing the membrane. The membrane is now visible yet the chick can not break through it. I am unsure on what I should do....if I should interfere or just let it be????

Thanks !

 

[JaeG]

It might look like the membrane hasn't been perforated but it will have been. If the chick is just making its pip larger and larger and not unzipping then it's possibly stuck in the wrong position and unable to rotate to finish hatching. You can gently peel back some of the shell around the pip and see if all of the blood in the veins of the membrane have been absorbed. If you see blood stop and wait a bit longer before proceeding. You may have to wet the membrane to get a clear view.

 

[Carlylizards]

Mines doing the same thing. Today is day 17 and 5 eggs have cracked their shell a little bit. The one to first do it was this morning. It has slowly been making its crack a tiny bit bigger and I'm able to see some of it. Its A bright white membrane that it hasn't pierced yet. Mine has only been like this for 5 hours though