Turning eggs during lockdown

[Ridgerunner]

I don't have a good answer for you. Shrink wrap is when the membrane around the chick dries out and shrinks around it, preventing it from zipping. There is no set time from pip to zip. Some only take a short time, some take well over 24 hours. As long as they can breathe through the hole they can live a very long time even when stuck.

The best I can do is link you to an article in the Learning Center above about assisted hatch. If you read this you should have a pretty good idea of what to do.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

The chances that you shrink wrapped that chick are pretty low but they are not zero. I've opened the incubator a few times when an egg had pipped to deal with an emergency. One time a chick did shrink wrap but all the other times they did not. I don't think you'll need to know anything about assisted hatch but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

 

[MyCozyCritters]

I don't think that baby is going to make it. It was too early I think and from what I can tell it was turned the wrong way. I did open the incubator after about 30 hours and put the egg in a warm wet washcloth but I could see that the egg sack had leaked yolk into the egg. I turned it so it could get out and not drown the baby and put it back in there, but by this morning it hasn't come out. I haven't opened the incubator to check, because there are 3 little ones out of the shell drying and not sure about other pips! Now I'm not sure if I should take it out or what! But here is a pic of the 3 lil ones: I'm still sad about that lil one and really afraid to check and see! Hoping it's alright but don't want to damage it either!

 

[MyCozyCritters]

Hi again y'all!
Well, that baby didn't make it...it was too early and I didn't mess with it. It wasn't alive that morning...but I had those 3....let them stay in there around 24 hours and Sunday morning 5 or 6 more were barely pipped. The babies were peeping too! <3 All that day it was fine but that night the power went off for about 4 hours! I was frantic! I put the incubator on top of 2 milk jugs of hot water and prayed and stressed out! When the power came back on I was just sure the babies had gotten too cold! But I left them all night. The next morning the pips were about the same and the babies were still peeping so all day....I looked at them over and over! By that night I was worried and I looked at what to do. I found a video of a girl peeling the eggs when the babies just couldn't get out. I thought by this time they must be shrink wrapped, but they couldn't get out so.......my heart in my throat I started just unzipping them, with just the shells, not the skins inside...they were strong and almost as soon as I got that done and put them back in the incubator on a warm wet washcloth they would kick their way out! I had 8 eggs in there and two of them didn't pip and when I checked them, they weren't viable....but! I had 8 little darling keets that did and they are doing wonderfully! I am posting a picture of my babies, 11 of them! All perfect and eating like little raptors!

 

[MyCozyCritters]

Thank you all for responding and I just want to say, I LOVE THIS GROUP! <3