Trouble with pippers and partly hatched chicks

[Feafur]

Okay, so my husband and I are pretty new to this. We hatched out one batch of chicks 3 weeks ago and have begun hatching out our second batch. The first batch we lost 2 that pipped, but then stopped. So far, this batch, we lost 1. Fully formed little sex linked hen. It makes us SICK when this happens. About 13 hatched quickly and were running amuck in the incubator and apparently, there is a problem with our fan in the incubator, since one chick that we've named Geronimo was almost scalped when he stood up!!! We put some antibiotic ointment on him and he's doing fine, but that made us want to get them out as they dried. So, is that making it hard for the OTHER chicks still in eggs to hatch out? How do you know when to assist and when NOT to assist. The temp and humidity are at the same place they were for the other chicks that hatched yesterday, but there is just one little pip in one egg and NOTHING in the other eggs. Just now we wetted down one of my Ameraucana chicks that had quit working after being pipped for a whole day and making a little head way...but was drying out like crazy. I assisted this one and gave him a bit of nutradrench via syringe and he's doing fine but the other little red star chick didn't make it. We were too late. I hate to loose anymore!!!! Thanks for any advice you can give!

 

[sumi]

I'm sorry to hear you are having such a hard time. A friend of mine put together a great article on assisted hatches that will answer your questions and tell you what to do to help. Have a look here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

Good luck!

 

[Jotaylor]

Hi! I have a puzzling situation. . . I have 4 bantam eggs that are on day 26 and none have pipped yet! I just candled them and marked the air cell after reading the link above. They all seem alive and still have some rather large veins, should I do anything? I have been talking with another member but I just don't know what to do.

 

[Feafur]

Thank you so much! What a great article! So far, one more has hatched...thank GOD! We are going to just keep watching the others until morning based on the article.

 

[Feafur]

I would probably wait JoTaylor...according to the article. If you can hear them peeping around and they are moving....it may just be taking a little longer. Is the humidity right?

 

[nittanyxi]

I had a similar problem on my last hatch with 3 chicks piping and then stopping. I gave each one 8 to 12 hours on their own and if it looked like they weren't making any progress I brought a humidifier into my room and brought the humidity in the room up to 60 before I opened the incubator to take the pipped eggs out. I chipped away bits of the shell about 1/4 to 1/3 around the egg in the same pattern that the chick would, but left the membrane underneath unharmed. If the chick had pipped the shell but not broken the membrane where it's beak was I would open the membrane just over it's beak so it could breath easier right before I put it back in the incubator. All 3 of mine were able to hatch on their own after that. One of them didn't dry all matted and not fluffy so I had to give it a little warm water bath and put it back in the incubator to dry. I made all this up as I went along so I don't know if it's right or wrong, but everyone that pipped is healthy and running around.

 

[Jotaylor]

Yes it is up over 60% I had it to high early on in incubation so I think it has just taken them a while to absorb. No peeps yet. The bad thing is I have another batch of eggs in there that I just set this week, thinking the bantams would have hatched by now. So I have to open it to turn them. Does it really work to just put something under 1 end to raise it up and switch it to the other side later? So that I don't open the bator. I want them out, but knowing they are alive in there makes it hard. . .plus I want some tiny bantam babies!

 

[sumi]

Hi! I have a puzzling situation. . . I have 4 bantam eggs that are on day 26 and none have pipped yet! I just candled them and marked the air cell after reading the link above. They all seem alive and still have some rather large veins, should I do anything? I have been talking with another member but I just don't know what to do.

Read through the article I linked just above your post. If you can see veins they definitely need more time. They should've hatched by now... What was your incubation temperature?

 

[sumi]

Thank you so much! What a great article! So far, one more has hatched...thank GOD! We are going to just keep watching the others until morning based on the article.

It is a great article! Any more chicks hatched yet?

 

[sumi]

Yes it is up over 60% I had it to high early on in incubation so I think it has just taken them a while to absorb. No peeps yet. The bad thing is I have another batch of eggs in there that I just set this week, thinking the bantams would have hatched by now. So I have to open it to turn them. Does it really work to just put something under 1 end to raise it up and switch it to the other side later? So that I don't open the bator. I want them out, but knowing they are alive in there makes it hard. . .plus I want some tiny bantam babies!

You can tilt the incubator instead of turning, but I'd hand turn them at least every 10 hours while the bantams are still busy. Once the bantams are hatched drop the humidity down to 35% for awhile to compensate for the high humidity now and candle and keep an eye on the air sacs for the rest of the incubation. This is what you're aiming for: