When to help

[sneakypete87]

Hi - I incubated 9 eggs due to hatch Monday. Most hatched Monday/Tuesday but I left the other 3 eggs in the incubator just in case and yesterday afternoon we noticed another one with some pipping (2-3days after the others). Fast forward to this morning and it's made some progress but seemed to slow. The membrain is pretty dried up on the bottom of the open area but I can see it breathing and feathers in the upper two thirds of the opening.

Should I let it be and just see what happens? Help pick away at the shell at all? It's probably been at it for about 15-18hrs or so (can't say for sure as I wasn't really looking for pipping yesterday).

I've only incubated a few times and haven't run into this.

Thoughts would be great.

Thanks!

 

[DemeterAD9]

When I chick pips it can take a while before they start to zip, often a day or so. Once they start zipping is really shouldn’t take more than an hour or 2. In this situation I would help, just be careful and wet the dry membrane before trying to remove it or you will pull the down/skin it is attached to.

Just be aware that there may be something wrong with the chick like splay leg or curled toes which can be corrected. I’ve only incubated a few times myself but it seems the ones that need help hatching have a higher chance of having issues. But it may be perfectly fine too, just stuck in place by the dry membrane.