Would anyone explain to me what a safety hole is? When to do/or not do it?

[vonmatter]

Hey guys,

I am in the middle of a complicated hatch… Trying everything and checking everything… Chicks were supposed to be my daughter's Christmas present

So I came across some posts talking about a safety hole, something to avoid the chicks to suffocate to n the egg? I would really appreciate it if anyone could explain a little bit more about it to me Thanks a lot.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Safety holes are for when you have a chick that is internally pipped for a while but not externally pipped. They can work wonders for chicks struggling to break through the shell. You'd want to be checking up on the eggs and looking for peeping but no cracks in the shells yet. You can also look for the beak shadow through the shell if the chick is the quiet type. No point in creating a safety hole until the chick is ready to pip. It shouldn't hurt to do a safety hole for any straggler eggs if the rest of the clutch is already making progress too, assuming they were all started at the same time.

I do a safety hole only for very special eggs, particularly ones that are from a dark layer (dark olive or dark brown) as they seem to have a harder time pipping IME. Take a sharp pointed screw and gently but firmly twist it back and forth at the top of the air cell, being careful of the chick's head position. Drill a hole through the shell and through the papery membrane but not the membrane covering the chick. This should allow the chick to get some fresh air and hopefully that extra boost to pip and hatch as usual. Just make sure the humidity is kept high so they don't end up drying out too fast.

 

[vonmatter]

Safety holes are for when you have a chick that is internally pipped for a while but not externally pipped. They can work wonders for chicks struggling to break through the shell. You'd want to be checking up on the eggs and looking for peeping but no cracks in the shells yet. You can also look for the beak shadow through the shell if the chick is the quiet type. No point in creating a safety hole until the chick is ready to pip. It shouldn't hurt to do a safety hole for any straggler eggs if the rest of the clutch is already making progress too, assuming they were all started at the same time.

I do a safety hole only for very special eggs, particularly ones that are from a dark layer (dark olive or dark brown) as they seem to have a harder time pipping IME. Take a sharp pointed screw and gently but firmly twist it back and forth at the top of the air cell, being careful of the chick's head position. Drill a hole through the shell and through the papery membrane but not the membrane covering the chick. This should allow the chick to get some fresh air and hopefully that extra boost to pip and hatch as usual. Just make sure the humidity is kept high so they don't end up drying out too fast.

Thank you so much,

I mostly get it, you are just increasing the size of the air cell by opening it to the external air, right?

But should I cover the hole with a tiny piece of a wet paper towel? To try to avoid it from drying out? And how much humidity should it be? 60/70/80?

Eggs are starting to Pip, I’ve waited almost 24h and this one would move the egg back and forward, and no piping. It's already a late batch due to power outages…

I really appreciate your help
Thanks.

 

[vonmatter]

I mean what do I do if I do a safety hole and then, realize the chick didn't have Pip the outer membrane? Do I close the hole back with wet paper to avoid the Viteline membrane from drying out and wrap the chick or do I keep it open? Humidity is at 60/65% now.

 

[DemeterAD9]

I usually aim for 70% at lock down. If most of them are just starting to pip then I'd give it some time. Nothing good comes from trying to assist too early. My rule is only start assisting after the first flush of chicks have hatched. I'd only start to worry about 12hrs or so after the big hatch when a bunch are popping out at once. If there are a few stragglers who have not pipped by then, drill some safety holes.

It is quite possible one or two will have issues and be unable to hatch/survive anyways due to the power outage. Deformed chicks rarely hatch and therefore it is IMO less depressing having them die in the egg rather than trying to save ones that are surely not going to make it. But I've had quite a few perfectly formed, good looking chicks die in the egg without pipping, though most of those were shipped eggs so no surprise there.

Some people prefer the hands off approach and let nature take its course where only the strong survive. Nothing wrong with that either but I prefer to get the most out of my hatches so I often assist a couple here and there. I've got some lovely birds that probably never would have survived had I not helped them out.

 

[vonmatter]

I usually aim for 70% at lock down. If most of them are just starting to pip then I'd give it some time. Nothing good comes from trying to assist too early. My rule is only start assisting after the first flush of chicks have hatched. I'd only start to worry about 12hrs or so after the big hatch when a bunch are popping out at once. If there are a few stragglers who have not pipped by then, drill some safety holes.

It is quite possible one or two will have issues and be unable to hatch/survive anyways due to the power outage. Deformed chicks rarely hatch and therefore it is IMO less depressing having them die in the egg rather than trying to save ones that are surely not going to make it. But I've had quite a few perfectly formed, good looking chicks die in the egg without pipping, though most of those were shipped eggs so no surprise there.

Some people prefer the hands off approach and let nature take its course where only the strong survive. Nothing wrong with that either but I prefer to get the most out of my hatches so I often assist a couple here and there. I've got some lovely birds that probably never would have survived had I not helped them out.

Thanks

 

[kattabelly]

I mean what do I do if I do a safety hole and then, realize the chick didn't have Pip the outer membrane? Do I close the hole back with wet paper to avoid the Viteline membrane from drying out and wrap the chick or do I keep it open? Humidity is at 60/65% now.

If the eggs aren't so dark that candling doesn't show much, you should be able to see when the chick has pipped internally by candling the egg. Otherwise an internally pipped chick will usually start peeping if you tap on the egg a few times (not hard enough to risk cracking the shell, but tap with your fingernail or something hard rather than the soft pad of a fingertip). If you can hear them trying to pip externally but not managing to break through the shell, that's another time I might make a safety hole if it kept happening but they still hadn't broken through several hours later.

The safety hole only needs to be a few mm wide, so there shouldn't be too much of a risk of the chick drying out unless you make the hole much too early or the incubator humidity is already too low. Covering the hole with wet paper defeats the whole point of making it, which is to allow fresh air into the egg's air cell to prevent the chick suffocating.