[redspookycooky]

my first egg piped, think thats the word, last night about 9pm when i got up this morning, 8am, the hole is only a little bit bigger, how long will it take to fully hatch and should i be concerned its taking this long?

[Chickway]

Good morning, I am a newbie to hatching but had my first hatch last weekend and one took ages to hatch and when I went to give a little assistance the membrane was like leather so there was no way he would of managed himself.  Both the man that supplied me the eggs and the vet said that if they do take a little while to hatch to help with the humidity and to keep the egg moist spray a little water on the egg.  I have more hatching today hopefully and two have pipped and if they take too long I will definately give them a little spray of water.  I suppose you must be careful not to open the incubation unit to much to do this as you will affect the humidity too much. 

The one that I had to assist last weekend was wobbly on his legs for 4 days and kept falling over and could not get back up, I was very worried that I had done the wrong thing helpig him out but now I cant tell which one it was, so im very happy.

Good luck its all very exciting.
Chickway.

[Casey76]

It can take up to 24 hours from pip to zip (hatch)

At the moment the chick will be absorbing the remaining yolk, and the veins in the membrane will be retracting, so sit on your hands  do not touch the incubator.  Ensure the humidity is high (between 60 and65% if you can manage it), and resist the temptation to "help"  at this stage, if you open the incubator it can happen that the humidity will drop and the membrane will dry out "shrink wrapping" the chick.

For me, it helps to get out ouf the house lol!

I also have one of my 10 eggs pipping, but I know from last year, that if I "help" more often than not you end up killing the chick