Worried - slow hatching egg and panting chick

[JessicaGrant]

Hi all - it has been a loooong time since I did this! I have a hovabator and started 18 eggs a while back - today is day 21 or 22. Yesterday, I woke up to find a chick(!) and yesterday afternoon noticed another pip. This morning the pipped egg had a hole about a 1/4 inch in diameter, and since then she has sloooowly opened up about 1 and 1/2 inch. I haven't noticed any progress in the past few hours, but I can see she is still breathing. In the meantime, though, the hatched chick hasn't had food or water since she hatched about 36 hours ago and she is panting. I locked down the bator early because I miscalculated the date and when I did I put down paper and covered up the thermometer, so I am flying blind! Also, the chick occasionally goes over to the egg that is hatching and pecks it!!

So...should I take out the chick that hatched? I've heard never open the incubator while one is hatching but maybe I can do something to keep it moist? The pecking at the one trying to hatch seems bad.

And should I "help" the chick that is taking so long to hatch? (I know the answer is "no" but I really want to! It seems like a long time since she pipped!)

I am really sad that the rest haven't pipped. I don't know how confident the woman who sold them to me was that they were fertile but I tried candling and thought I saw something (though as you can tell, I'm not very experienced!)

Thanks for your help!!

ETA: You can tell it's been a long time since my info says "mom to 9 year old twins" but those twins in my picture are 18 and in college!

 

[JaeG]

I believe, as many do, that by artificially incubating we can get it wrong which then leads to us needing to step in when a chick has become stuck. This is an excellent article on assisted hatching: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

I recently helped a Muscovy duckling who didn't do anything by himself other than internally pipping. I made a safety hole because when I candled I could see that he wasn't as active and he was no longer cheeping at me. He never externally pipped and 48 hours after I made the safety hole I broke him out of his shell. He was very ready to be out of that egg! He is gorgeous and perfect and hilarious and I'm so glad I stepped in. So if you think your chick needs help, read through the article so you feel like you know what you are doing, and help it out.

And I always whip out hatched babies that are ready to be out of the incubator, though I live in a humid climate which helps.

It might pay to candle the rest and see if any have pipped internally too.

Let me know how you get on.

 

[JessicaGrant]

Thanks for your post! I helped and she is out - she looks a little malformed but she does look pretty strong so I am hoping!! Still no sign on any of the other eggs. I think my old incubator wasn't up to the job or maybe my hand turning was not enough or too much, or something. I plan on taking a hot bath, steaming up my bathroom and candling the eggs tonight. I'll make a safety hole if any look like they are alive. I've never candled eggs so late in a hatch before. Meantime, my one healthy baby is looking around wondering why she is all alone! I hope the other one can join her soon.

 

[JaeG]

Thanks for the update. At least your first baby won't be alone for long. Fingers crossed you find some signs of life in the remaining eggs.

 

[Conscious_Owl]

Any updates

 

[JessicaGrant]

I did assist the chick who had gotten stuck and she lived about a week. I thought for a while that she would pull through - she seemed to be getting stronger and started eating and drinking - but then she declined over a few days and died. I don't think she suffered.

What was weird was that did go through all the other eggs, in case I had missed some sign of life. Some had not grown at all, but most of them were full of half-developed chick ... and mold. I had never seen anything like it! I think the humidity may have gotten high in the hovabator early on, but how would mold get inside the eggs?!? There was none on the outside of the eggs or in the incubator itself, that I could see.

So I bought a couple of friends for the one who hatched - she is the white one in the pic - and bleached the heck out of the incubator. I was going to try to find more fertile eggs and set some, but I think with the four adults and now three babies, I probably have enough chickens for now. And I'm a little traumatized by what I found in those eggs!