Dry membrane

[QuailGirl--25]

This is my first-time hatching quail and my 1st egg pipped around 10ish in the morning on the 18th day and it is now night time of the 19th day. My egg has pipped and made the pip hole bigger but has yet to make any more progress. It has pierced the membrane a little and I can see it beak moving. My humidity is around 70% but I’m worried about how long it has been in the egg. The membrane directly on the pip hole is a little yellowy-brown. Is that what a dried membrane looks like? Or does it look different? Since this is my 1st time hatching quail I’m very hesitant to step in and help.

 

[Lemon88]

Wait as long as you can to help.

I am not sure if that is a dry membrane, but this is what i did to mine.The humidity dropped dangerously low for a while as everyone was hatching in my incubator. I moistened the eggs with paper towel and that worked for some. Others I just crushed the shell all the way around the egg with a toothpick, not going too far in order to avoid bledding. I helped two hatch, one being successful with no bleeding. The other had a lot of bleeding, and thought I had made a huge mistake igoring advice of others. The chick made it, but suffered some leg deformities due to being in the egg so long. Not an expert, this is just my experience. Best of luck with your quail. 12/12 of mine developed and 11 hatched. They are very resilient creatures!

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

You can use coconut oil on the membrane if you are very worried about it. But 70 percent is more than fine, maybe even too high, but i hatch my quail more of the dry side compared to chickens... you hightened the humidity at lockdown right?
Sometimes a membrane can appear dryer than you think simply from the blood vessels withdrawing from it, ive panicked a time or two with chickens and found they were actually very pliable still, just looked white and hard on the outer membrane.

But you can't wait quite as long with quail as with chickens, and when they do hatch put them in the brooder as soon as they are dry, they need water alot faster than chickens do.

i would help by tomorro for sure... if you see any amount of bleeding, stop immediately the vessels havent wihdrawn from the membrane and it would do more harm than good to help at that point!

 

[Little Jerry Seinfeld]

How'd your hatch go?