What to do?

[Windus]

Disclaimer: This is my first time incubating eggs and this is the first one to start hatching.

Chick pipped through the egg at 11 pm last night and then nothing until about 3 pm this afternoon. In about an hour he broke through to this point and stopped. He intermittently struggles and chirps and then stops but does not seem to be getting the rest of the way out.

It is now almost 24 hours since the first pip. Would you continue to wait or help him at this point.

They are on a live webcam feed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/s-wheat-rescues as well.

 

[BYCforlife]

I did an assisted hatch after 24 hours. I put a wet paper towel over the egg for a bit to soften the membrane. Then, I VERY gently pulled the two ends of the egg apart, until the chick uncurled its head. It got out the rest of the way after that

 

[tuesdaze]

I would help the chick at this point. I would be concerned that there may be a physical defect that is the reason the chick can't finish zipping, but I would help anyway and hope upon hope that I am not faced with a decision to cull or not to cull. I can't tell from the picture, but it is possible that it is just shrink wrapped and is a healthy normal chick. I found this article to be a valuable resource. www.backyardchickens.com/articles/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching.64660/

 

[Windus]

Chick is out now. Ended up having to assist a tiny bit. The side of his head was adhered to the membrane and he was struggling so hard with his body going the opposite direction and I was afraid he would injure his neck. So, I scooped him out and got his head free and him back in the incubator in under a minute and he immediately popped out after his head was free.

 

[Windus]

I would help the chick at this point.

Thankfully he seems totally healthy. His head was stuck to the membrane on the side which I believe was the whole issue.

 

[Pyxis]

Yep, if a chick ever stops during zip, it needs help. So if it happens again in the future, go ahead and free it right away Also, here is an article, in case you ever do need to do a full assisted hatch:

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

 

[tuesdaze]

Congratulations! It's awesome that the chick is hatched and healthy. Pictures are always enjoyed! Did any of the other eggs hatch yet? Since that chick was getting shrink wrapped, it might not hurt to double check the humidity in the incubator or the accuracy of the hygrometer.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Chick is out now. Ended up having to assist a tiny bit. The side of his head was adhered to the membrane and he was struggling so hard with his body going the opposite direction and I was afraid he would injure his neck. So, I scooped him out and got his head free and him back in the incubator in under a minute and he immediately popped out after his head was free.

 

[Windus]

Congratulations! It's awesome that the chick is hatched and healthy. Pictures are always enjoyed! Did any of the other eggs hatch yet? Since that chick was getting shrink wrapped, it might not hurt to double check the humidity in the incubator or the accuracy of the hygrometer.

I am not sure that it was actually shrink wrapped. It was just a tiny piece of the fuzz on his head was adhered, more like he had fallen asleep while zipping and it dried like that, the rest of his body came free quickly and was not stuck.

My incubator is hovering around 70% humidity right now.

None of the other eggs has hatched yet but this was a weird situation and the eggs were not all put in the incubator at the same time.

I had bought the incubator just to try hatching and had only put a couple of eggs in there. Three days later, we were caught in a flash flood and all of my adult chickens were unfortunately caught in it inside their coop during the night and lost in the flood. Since they were all a great group of Blue Laced Red Wyandottes that were very hardy and savvy enough to elude any predators, I decided to take all of their eggs that I had on hand and put them in the incubator and see what I ended up with. Didn't have anything to lose!

Here is a pic of my one chick, he and the eggs are actually on a live webcam you can see at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/s-wheat-rescues . I put them on there so I can monitor from work.

Sorry, this turned into a book!

 

[BYCforlife]

Good job!