pipping but no zipping...

[possumhunter]

I'm on my second ever hatch and my quail popped right out. So did 9 of my chicks. But now there are about 5 eggs that pipped but haven't zipped. One hasn't done anything in over 6 hours. The other one has pipped and I can see its beak moving but its not even trying to zip. Its like it is stuck in there? I don't know. I know I'm not supposed to help them, but is there anything else I should do? Did I do something wrong? I'm pretty sure that I've lost a couple of them (I haven't seen them doing anything for quite awhile). I just feel really bad for the last one that is just sitting there, doing nothing. Just wondering what I did wrong!

Thanks!

 

[Tala]

SIT ON YOUR HANDS AND LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!!!!!!

It can take up to 24 hours after they pip before they zip. They are resting, and absorbing the yolk. Trying to help them could make them hatch too early and kill them!!

I had 10 pips on day 20, but only 3 chicks by the time I finally went to bed. Went on to hatch out 17 chicks though!!

They will make it!!

 

[silkiechicken]

Did you open the incubator? That can make it hard for them.

 

[debilorrah]

We can be anxious together. Most of mine are pipped and have been sitting there for hours now. And of course, as soon as I started complaining about it a second one hatched. I am THE most impatient person on the planet and this is killing me. You have company.

 

[possumhunter]

Quote:
I did quickly earlier today to pull all the quail out. This was my first hatch where I was trying to combine the two and I think I added the quail eggs a day too soon, because they hatched last night before the chick eggs did. I hope I didn't mess things up too badly! I really tried to be quick and I only opened it once to pull them all out. I know I wasn't supposed to open it, but was worried about the quail being in there so long after hatching.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
I did quickly earlier today to pull all the quail out. This was my first hatch where I was trying to combine the two and I think I added the quail eggs a day too soon, because they hatched last night before the chick eggs did. I hope I didn't mess things up too badly! I really tried to be quick and I only opened it once to pull them all out. I know I wasn't supposed to open it, but was worried about the quail being in there so long after hatching.

Oh dear. One thing I did learn here, is that if there are any pips at all do not open the bator. All I can say now is to leave the bator alone. The ones that were pipped could be shrink wrapped and may not make it, but leave it alone and the others will be ok.

 

[shadburnchicks]

I am very new to this so I hope others will correct me if I'm wrong. We made the same mistake and opened our bator after lockdown. 7 hatched fine but 4 were shrink wrapped. We left them alone for well over 24 hours but then it was obvious they weren't able to get out. We read on the message board that you can get a bathroom really steamy so you won't loose all your humidity and take the incubator in there. We opened it and removed part of the shell and it was extremely dry. We removed some of the membrane because it was so dry and was shrink wrapped. If we saw any blood at all, we stopped. We only left the shell and membrane on their booties so they could finish absorbing the nutrients and this morning, they were up running around with a shell attached to their booty. I took them one at a time to a really warm bathroom and ran warm water over the membrane and shell and it came right off. They are up running around now. 1 of the chicks that was still in the membrane didn't make it and I had to help the other one. The membrane was so tight that it couldn't move. It was chirping and looking at me so I rubbed warm water over it until the membrane loosened and I put it back in the bator. I'm not sure if it will make it but it wasn't going to anyway.

We certainly learned our lesson that you NEVER open the bator after lockdown. Again, we're new at this but this is what we did and we were able to save 3 chicks that would've died because we opened the bator.

Good luck. Everyone on this forum is so helpful. 4 of our chicks wouldn't died with the knowledge of helpful people on this forum!!

 

[possumhunter]

I added a bit more water last night via a straw through the vent hole in the top and put a drop of water on a couple of the eggs that had been inactive yesterday. I woke up this morning to 4 more chicks. I guess I just needed to be more patient

. I will make sure that I time my hatches better next time the use quail and chicken eggs. I was just worried about the little quail getting trampled for being in there so long with the chicks.

I still have quite a few eggs that haven't done anything, no pipping or anything. Should I give it all another day? I didn't candle all of my eggs b4 lockdown so I don't know if they were all developed or not. I'm a bit dissapointed with my hatch rate. I thought everything was fertile....(i have one roo covering 6 hens, but I see him doing his duty all the time). Not sure what I did wrong, but hoping I can fix it

 

[debilorrah]

When I left for work this morning there were two chicks and 5 pips. The same ones from last night. I am not very optimistic about them hatching at this point.

 

[shadburnchicks]

That's great news!!! What day are you on? We had 3 eggs last night (day 22) that hadn't done anything so we candled them (we didn't candle at lockdown either). There was no movement so we made a small hole on the big end to see what happened. There was a sack with blood but it looked empty. I've also read on here that you can candle them now to see where their head is at and make a small hold so they can breath. Maybe someone with more experience will give some input.