Should I open it?

[Sylviaanne]

I have 5 chicks and 8 pipped eggs. I do seem to have a problem though. One of the eggs that is pipped, the beak is sticking out but it's not moving. I can't get the chick to make a sound and when I touch it's beak, it doesn't feel like it is responding in any way. I don't know how but I think it died in the shell with the shell opened enough it can breathe. Sylvia

 

[Lizz9311]

Hey Sylvia,

Congrats on your chicks! That being said, how long has the one chick been in that position? Is it possible it's taking a break from pipping before it starts to zip? If it's been there for hours with no movement/response, I might remove it to allow the other chicks to hatch unencumbered and open the one to see what went wrong. It could just be that the chick wasn't weak enough to complete the hatch, but it could be something else and I would want to know what to try and prevent it happening again.

Good luck and again congrats on the chicks!

 

[Sylviaanne]

I know that it was peeping when I went to bed last night about 1030pm, but about 730am this morning, I couldn't get it to react. I took the 5 that had hatched and put them in a brooder with other chicks under a heat lamp and went back to check on the ones still in the shell. This morning, I added 2 more that were pipping to the 6 that were pipped last night. While I checked the other eggs in the incubator, I kept an eye on the one that wasn't moving. I picked it up and closed the bator and started pecking on the egg shell with my finger nail. Nothing. Touched the beak, nothing. Wiggled the beak, nothing. I think it feels a little stiff in the egg like rigor might have set in.

Thank you for the congrats on the other babies. Sylvia

 

[Lizz9311]

That's a bummer. Maybe you should crack it open and see what happen.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I'm kind of afraid. I may not want to know, even if it's simple. Like, no reason.

 

[Lizz9311]

I can understand that. Since I'm having so many problems with my incubator, I have to open my eggs up every time I have a failed hatch. It's the only way I can learn what to do and what not to do next time. I suppose if the others are hatching without a problem you don't really have to worry about what happened to this one chick. It could be, like I said, that it was just too weak to complete the hatch.

It's really up to you whether or not you open it to inspect.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I think I'll wrestle with it a while and see if I can't talk myself into it. LOL Thank you so much. Sylvia

 

[ChickenPox]

It just happens sometimes. I recently had one pip, and then die less than 12 hours after it pipped. When I looked inside, it looked like it had twisted around away from the open air and possibly suffocated? But whatever the reason, there is probably 99.9% nothing you could have done differently to help/save it/produce a different outcome. Sometimes it just happens. Sad, but you can't let it bum ya out too badly. Congrats on the other babies!