There has been one in every one of my hatches that zips and gets stuck for one reason or another. Usually if I catch it early I can just pop the end off and the chick is fine. The last quail batch 23 popped out of their eggs no problem, 1 drowned, and 1 I pulled the end off and dumped him out when I removed the other chicks. Left him and 2 others that were still damp in there to dry off, moved them to the brooder an hour later, and by the next day had no clue which one it was. Same with my last japanese bantam hatch. Nearly all eggs hatched and the last one I had to pull the end off the egg. It fell right out of the egg and ran around peeping. Previous button hatch same thing but I didn't realize one was still stuck in the egg and I had several that didn't hatch so I left them an extra 2 days to see if there were any late ones. By the time I found the zipped and stuck chick it was alive but too late. It came out all crooked and unable to straighten itself. I tried to help it but it died 2 days later. Since my hatch rate those times was 90% or better I don't really think it's anything I'm doing wrong. Some just don't get positioned right, have thicker membrane than normal, or some other odd thing that keeps them from giving that last push to shove the end off the egg and hatch.
