Hatching chicks is an exciting and rewarding experience for any backyard chicken keeper. However it can also be nerve-wracking when you encounter issues during the incubation and hatching process. One common dilemma is deciding whether or not to assist a chick that is struggling to hatch on its own. There are pros and cons to consider when making this decision.
When Assisting May Be Necessary
There are several situations where a chick may need some help hatching:
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Incorrect incubation conditions – If the temperature or humidity was too high or low during incubation, it can prevent the chick from moving properly inside the egg. This is one of the most common reasons a chick gets “stuck”.
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Improper egg turning – The eggs must be turned multiple times per day during incubation so the chick doesn’t stick to the shell Neglecting this can cause problems
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Lack of ventilation – Proper airflow is essential. Too little ventilation leads to increased humidity and chick malpositions
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Malpositioned chick – The chick may be oriented in an abnormal way inside the egg, such as with its feet over its head. This prevents it from rotating to pip the shell.
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Overly large chick – Very large, healthy chicks may simply grow too big to be able to turn and zip the shell open.
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Weak chick – On rare occasions, a chick may be unhealthy or have physical defects that prevent it from hatching normally.
If the chick has pipped the air cell but hasn’t made progress in 24 hours, assistance may be needed. Observing the chick’s behavior can also reveal if help is required.
Potential Risks of Assisting
While there are valid reasons to help a hatching chick, there are also some risks to consider:
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Premature intervention – Assisting too early can cause serious harm or death to the chick. Internal absorption of the yolk and blood vessels is a lengthy process.
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Bleeding – If shell membranes are removed too soon, it can rupture blood vessels and cause fatal bleeding. Go slowly and watch for blood.
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Introduction of bacteria – Unclean hands or tools can potentially expose the chick to dangerous bacteria when assisting. Proper sanitation is crucial.
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Special needs chick – A chick that couldn’t hatch unassisted may have health issues that require extra care. Be prepared for this possibility.
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Prolonging suffering – Severely defective or non-viable chicks will not survive long, even with help. It may be kinder not to assist in these cases.
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Weakened offspring – Some argue that assisted chicks grow up to produce offspring that also struggle, reducing flock vigor over generations. However, evidence does not strongly support this in most cases.
While the risks are low if proper technique is used, it’s smart to consider them before jumping in to help.
Tips for Safely Assisting a Chick
If you decide that a chick needs help hatching, here are some tips to improve success:
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Wait 24 hours after the chick internally pips before assisting. This allows time for yolk absorption.
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Slowly widen the pip hole rather than making large openings to minimize bleeding risks.
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Frequently apply coconut oil to exposed membranes so they don’t dry out and shrink wrap the chick.
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Only remove shell and membrane from the air cell area, never over veins or embryo.
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Let the chick do as much of the work as possible. Many don’t need full assistance once freed up.
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Be prepared to humanely euthanize any assisted chicks that hatch with severe defects incompatible with life.
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Have emergency supplies like styptic powder on hand in case bleeding occurs and needs to be stopped.
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Work slowly, gently, and sanitize all tools. Rushing can make things worse.
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Seek advice from experienced hatchers if it’s your first time assisting. There are many subtleties involved.
The decision of whether or not to intervene ultimately depends on your comfort level. There are good arguments on both sides. If attempting it, exercise patience and caution. In most cases, the chick simply needs a little help, not a full rescue. With the right technique, assisting a hatch can save chicks that would otherwise die for preventable reasons.
What to do on Hatch Day
The last three days of incubation are the most nerve-wracking as you wait for the eggs to hatch! In a normal hatch, all the eggs should hatch within 24 hours of each other. However, not all the eggs will hatch at the exact same time. Smaller eggs will hatch sooner than larger eggs and the rate of development of the embryo will dictate when each egg hatches.
The first sign to look for when waiting for the eggs to hatch is to watch for external pips on the eggshells. You may have seen eggs with internal pips when you candled them at lockdown, and if you didn’t, don’t sweat it! An internal pip just means that the chick has broken into the air cell of the egg, which is the first step in the hatching process. Once the chick starts to use up the oxygen in the air cell, it will make an external pip in the eggshell (typically towards the blunt end of each egg).
When you see the first pip in an egg, you will want to decrease the incubator temperature by .5-1°F. Breaking through the eggshell and hatching is hot work for a young chick. Decreasing the incubator temperature slightly will prevent the chicks from overheating as they hatch.
After a chick has pipped the eggshell, it will take a long break. Breaking through the eggshell with its egg tooth (located at the very tip of a young chick’s beak) is very hard work and the chick needs a break before it moves onto the next step of hatching. After the chick has rested, it will start to unzip the rest of the eggshell.
Unzipping requires that the chick rotates around in the egg and breaks the eggshell so that it can free itself from the egg. Once unzipped, the chick will struggle and kick to come completely free itself of the eggshell. As hard as this struggle can be to watch, don’t help the chick! It needs to build up its muscles so that it can walk and grow properly.
The two best pieces of advice during this stage: don’t help a chick hatch from its egg and don’t open the incubator if chicks are hatching or there are pips in unhatched eggs. The proper humidity and temperature are crucial for the chicks to hatch properly. If the humidity gets too low, then the shell membrane that is exposed around the pip will dry out and trap the chick inside the egg. A healthy chick will not need help hatching.
Helping a chick hatch can be dangerous. Even after a chick pips the eggshell, its abdomen is still fully enclosing the egg yolk. If you go to help a chick out before it is ready to hatch, it could bleed to death.
After a chick has kicked free of its egg, it will stumble around the incubator and cause general havoc. Don’t worry, all that movement, jostling, and cheeping encourages the other chicks to hurry up and hatch. Chicks who have just hatched need to stay in the warm incubator while they fluff out.
When a chick is fluffed out, that means its down feathers have dried after hatching and it looks fluffy and soft. Chicks should not be removed from the incubator until they are fluffed out and all the eggs have hatched. Once all chicks have hatched and fluffed out, you can open the incubator and move the chicks to a brooder! The brooder should be prepared with heat, food, and water.
If you are experiencing a draggy hatch where all the eggs don’t hatch within 24 hours of each other, you may consider removing chicks who have fluffed out so that they can start eating and drinking in the brooder. However, chicks can survive on the absorbed egg yolk for up to 48 hours, so don’t rush with removing the chicks from the incubator if you don’t have to.
For eggs that haven’t pipped or hatched, you can wait two or three more days after hatch day to see if they will be late hatchers. If an egg is going on 24 days of incubation with no signs of pipping or hatching, then it more than likely is not going to hatch. It may be an egg that you kept in the clutch after the lockdown candling because you weren’t sure if the embryo was developing or not. Or it could be an egg that had a fully developed embryo that was never able to hatch.
At this point, you can remove the eggs that didn’t hatch from the incubator and candle them. Look to see if the embryo fills the entire egg, which means it was fully developed, or for movement. If you see movement, you will want to continue to let the egg incubate. If you see an internal pip but no movement, more than likely the embryo died before it finished hatching.
You will want to discard any eggs that never hatched, or you can dissect the eggs to try and determine why they didn’t hatch. A few scenarios that might cause a chick not to hatch include:
- Humidity was too high
- It got trapped in the shell because humidity was too low
- Insufficient ventilation during incubation
- Insufficient or improper turning
- Breeder flock dietary deficiencies
- Incubator contamination
- Lethal genes
- Improper storage of the hatching eggs prior to incubating
- Eggs got chilled too long during incubation
- Improper positioning for hatching
- Poor eggshell quality
How to Incubate Chicken Eggs
Now comes the fun part, putting those eggs in the incubator! However, there are a few important steps you should take when preparing the eggs for incubation.
First, you will want to candle all the eggs and mark them for identification. Marking each egg for identification will help you keep track of which eggs are developing throughout the incubation process. You may also choose to outline the air cell to help keep track of humidity levels. As an egg incubates, the air cell will gradually increase in size if the humidity levels are correct and enough moisture is evaporating from the egg. Weighing the eggs and keeping track of each egg’s weight loss can also help you monitor the humidity levels throughout incubation.
When candling the eggs prior to setting them in the incubator, look for these things:
- hairline cracks in the eggshell
- splotchy shells
- double yolks
- blood spots (usually seen as a dark spot inside the egg)
- misplaced air cells (the air cell should be located at the blunt end of the egg)
Eggs with hairline cracks, splotchy shells, double yolks, or blood spots should not be incubated as they will more than likely not fully develop and could even rot in the incubator. Eggs with misplaced air cells can still be incubated, however, those eggs are less likely to hatch properly.
If you are turning the eggs manually, it is a good idea to mark one side of each egg with an X and the other side of each egg with an O. This can help you keep track of how much you rotate the eggs during each turning. You never want to rotate the egg in a complete circle, which can break the chalazae which holds the yolk in place within the egg.
Once the eggs are candled and marked, you can set them in the incubator. If you properly tested your incubator for 24 hours, it should be at the proper temperature and humidity levels. Open the incubator and place the eggs in the incubator. Different models of incubators will have the eggs positioned in different ways. No matter the incubator, always make sure the pointy end of the egg rests slightly lower than the blunt end of the egg. If the eggs are placed on their sides, the pointy end will naturally rest lower than the blunt end. Close the incubator once all the eggs have been set. Over the next 30 minutes, monitor the incubator to make sure it returns to the proper temperature and humidity levels.
Also make sure that all the eggs turn properly when they are turned for the first time. If you manually turn your eggs, you will want to do so three to five times a day for the first two weeks of incubation. Make sure you set a reminder to turn those eggs! For the last week of incubation, turning the eggs frequently is not as important, but it should still be done at least twice a day.
It is important that the incubator maintains a stable humidity level throughout incubation. If the humidity gets too low, too much moisture will evaporate from the eggs causing the embryo to get stuck inside of the shell. If the humidity gets too high, not enough moisture will evaporate from the eggs and the embryo will develop too fast to mature properly. Use a hydrometer to test the humidity in your incubator frequently. Most incubators have a water reservoir that you need to fill in order for correct humidity levels to be maintained. You will need to refill the water reservoir as needed throughout incubation as water evaporates from the reservoir.
Here are some tips for further adjusting the humidity in the incubator:
- Increase or decrease the water surface area of the water reservoir to increase or decrease humidity levels.
- Open or close some of the ventilation vents on the incubator to increase or decrease humidity.
- Use warm water to increase the humidity levels.
- Moist sponges or small towels can also help increase humidity levels.
- Keep the humidity levels moderate in the incubating room.
After you set the eggs, don’t open the incubator unless you are manually turning the eggs or need to refill the water reservoir. The fewer times you open the incubator, the more stable the incubator can keep the temperature and humidity and the better hatch rate you will get.
The next time you will be candling the eggs will be after seven or ten days of incubation. Some folks choose to candle on day seven, which is exactly one week into the incubation period. Others prefer to wait until day ten, which is about halfway through the incubation period.
When you are ready to candle the eggs on day seven or ten, prepare a secure place to set the eggs while you candle them all. Quickly but carefully remove them all from the incubator and close the incubator. Candle the eggs and discard any eggs that show no signs of development. Here is what to look for when candling eggs at day seven or ten:
- Web of blood vessels around dark spot on the yolk – that means an embryo is developing.
- Clear – if the egg looks the same as when you set it, it was not fertile and is not developing.
- Blood ring – a blood ring will look like a narrow red ring within the egg and it means the embryo has died and is not developing.
- Cloudy shadows – cloudy shadows that swirl within the egg also indicate that the embryo has died and will not continue developing.
After candling all the eggs, quickly and carefully place them back in the incubator. Make sure the incubator returns to the proper temperature and humidity levels and that all the eggs turn properly after being placed back in the incubator. Don’t place eggs back in the incubator that are not developing. The non-developing eggs can rot and potentially explode, contaminating all the eggs in your incubator and ruining your hatch.
Lockdown is the term used to refer to the last three days of the incubation period. Chicken eggs have a 21-day incubation period, so days 18-21 are considered lockdown time. Lockdown is when you candle the eggs for the last time and prepare the incubator for when the eggs hatch.
After 18 days of incubation, carefully remove all the eggs from the incubator and candle each egg. Keep an eye out for the following signs:
- embryo fills most of the egg.
- may see some blood vessels around the embryo, especially close to the air cell.
- dark shadow in the air cell (that means the embryo has internally pipped).
- signs of no development- murky or muddled contents, blood ring.
If you are unsure if an egg is developing or not at this stage of incubation, it is safe to keep it in the incubator just to see if it will hatch. If the contents of an egg are clearly not developing or are loose and swirly, the egg will not hatch and should not be put back in the incubator.
Before you place the eggs back in the incubator, you will want to lay down a piece of plastic shelf liner on the floor of the incubator. The shelf liner will provide a non-slip surface for the new hatchlings to stand on, helping to prevent leg issues such as splay leg. Putting the shelf liner on the floor of the incubator may mean that you need to remove the automatic turning system from the incubator. The eggs should not be turned after day 18 of incubation since the chick will now be moving into the proper hatching position.
If you are using a chick hatcher, now will be the time you transfer the eggs to the hatcher. The hatcher should be programmed for proper hatching conditions and prepared the same way you would with an incubator.
Once the shelf liner is in place, you can set all the eggs back in the incubator or hatcher. You will also want to increase the humidity levels in the incubator at lockdown time. For the final three days of incubation, the humidity level should be raised 8-10% higher than what it was during incubation. Higher humidity during the hatching time will prevent the shell membrane from drying out and trapping the chick inside the egg.
However, you don’t want the humidity to get too high since that will inhibit the hatchlings from fluffing out properly. If the hatchlings don’t fluff out fast enough, they could get chilled and die. As the chicks hatch, they will contribute added moisture and humidity within the incubator as well.
After you have candled the eggs, installed shelf liner on the floor of the incubator, stopped automatic turning, and increased the humidity, it’s time to shut the incubator lid and leave it closed until hatch time! Do not disturb the eggs after lockdown and avoid opening the incubator at all costs.
Knowing When to Assist During Hatching
FAQ
When should you assist a chick hatching?
Wait: Ensure you have given the chick ample time. A minimum of 24 hours from pipping is a general rule of thumb before considering intervention. Sterilize: Ensure your hands and any tools you use are sterilized to prevent infection.
What happens if you help a chick hatch?
Assisting a chick in hatching can be detrimental, as it can cause injury or even death due to damage to blood vessels or other developmental issues.
How long can a chick stay pipped for?
Just because they have pipped doesn’t mean they will be out if the that soon, it could take another 24 to 36 hours for them to totally hatch. Also the hatched ones can stay in the incubator for up to 48 hours. People say 48 hours is as long is they should be in there once fully hatched.
What happens if you help a baby chick out of its shell?
Our hands carry a different kind of bacteria that can kill a baby chick. Another concern is if you help them, the placenta in the egg hadnt dried out enough where they can break free naturally without help. If you break it this can cause the baby chick inside the egg to bleed out and die.