Tan membrane- Time to intervene?

[Joeschooks]

Sounds like your little'un will get out ok, but do keep a close eye. You are correct in thinking once the membrane is tanned they often struggle to get out unassisted. RodNTN has given some good advice in this regard. Best of luck with your hatch!

 

[PippinChicken]

Thanks for the continued advice, everyone! Despite the new larger hole with normal white membrane under it, he went about two hours with no progress...just the tip of his beak in that little hole. I removed some more shell around the hole and found that the inner membrane was around him pretty snug...but I tried pulling it back a little bit and it bled. So now he’s back in the incubator with a larger hole to breathe out of and without the two chicks crashing around him and possibly damaging those little exposed veins.

 

[aart]

yeah mine are usually in the half hour to 45 min range for zipping.

I've had them start to zip then take rests...up to several hours.
Could be 5 minutes, could be hours.

 

[PippinChicken]

If anyone was wondering how this turned out, the little chick spent a few hours in the incubator still totally balled up even though I had removed a decent amount of the shell for him. I was keeping an eye on his breathing and everything was good on that front. The inner membrane started getting very dry and white, so I took him out to pick off a bit more shell and get it thoroughly moist for him. He didn't react as I was picking away more shell but became very active as soon as I started wetting the membrane. He finally unfurled his little head and wings and I put him back in the incubator to work on kicking himself out of the remaining shell. Took some time and a lot of rest breaks, but all turned out well

 

[Joeschooks]

That’s excellent news. Congratulations!