Worried first timer on hatch day, help!

[samanthachicken]

Hi, I bought 6 hatching eggs when both my girls went broody 21 days ago . Today is 'hatch day' all the eggs had pipped when I checked at 9am (uk) it's not almost 10pm and we have 3 beautiful chicks (picture attached as i am so proud) and an Unhatched egg under one chicken and 2 eggs under the other girl. The 2 eggs under the other hen don't seem to have progressed any. The chicks are still cheeping but there is still only the pip hole and beaks poking through. Is this normal or are these 2 in trouble? First time hatching and I'm so nervous/impatient/worried.

Any advice on what to do (or not) would be wonderful please.

Thank you so much in advance

 

[Abriana]

These might just be slow, don't try to break open the shell. Often, if a chick cannot overcome this first hardship of hatching, it will likely be weak and the others may peck it or it may be sick. You may want to help the chick, but you will have to be prepared that it may die later or be picked on. Good luck!

 

[Erka97]

Give the chicks up to a day or so from the time they pipped to get out on their own, and if they are still stuck then you will probably need to help them out. Break the shell slowly around the air cell, and stop if you see any blood -in which case moisten the membrane either with warm water or I've seen some on here use coconut oil and wait a while. Once the shell and membrane are out of the way, the chick should be able to kick itself free of the egg, but make sure its yolk is absorbed. Otherwise it will need to be kept in the egg until it does that.

I'm not sure why so many people say helped chicks are sure to be weak and die. Yes, a lot of them need extra care in the beginning, and some die, but I've had several chicks that needed lots of help that are now big, strong adult chickens.

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Hi, I bought 6 hatching eggs when both my girls went broody 21 days ago . Today is 'hatch day' all the eggs had pipped when I checked at 9am (uk) it's not almost 10pm and we have 3 beautiful chicks (picture attached as i am so proud) and an Unhatched egg under one chicken and 2 eggs under the other girl. The 2 eggs under the other hen don't seem to have progressed any. The chicks are still cheeping but there is still only the pip hole and beaks poking through. Is this normal or are these 2 in trouble? First time hatching and I'm so nervous/impatient/worried.

Any advice on what to do (or not) would be wonderful please.

Thank you so much in advance

Chicks often take as much as 24 hours after pip to progress to zip. Once they pip the vascular system between the egg and chick has to shut down and the veins recede. This can take a long time. Interfering before this can cause bleed out resulting in death or weak chicks. Assisting can be very beneficial and yield very healthy strong chicks, but timing has to be correct and the reason for the assist will also be a big factor on survival.

 

[samanthachicken]

Thanks so much for your advice guys. One chick hatched wonderfully on its own. The other remained the same so i read in depth and watched videos and helped it out. 'jeff' is now 3 days old and doing perfectly well like his/her sibling

This is 'Jeff' & 'Pingu' my silkie chicks that I asked about

Wonderful to have such a site to come to for any advice or worry