So.....I decided before this year's hatching started, that I was not going to intervene and help any chicks that did not make the internal pip themselves. Last year I tried with 3 and all died within 24 hours. Last week I had my 4th hatch and there was an IB egg that I thought had made the int. pip, but when I peeled some shell to check for progress I discovered a chick that was still alive but had not pipped internally because it's beak was stuck between its legs. There were practically no blood vessels in the inner membrane so I knew it was ready, and heaven help me I went ahead and helped it out. I thought for 3 days it was going to die, because it just laid in a little "hospital bed" I made for it in the brooder. The third night it seemed so weak I thought for sure I would find it dead the next morning, instead I found it out of it's bed and trying to walk on a pair of spraddled legs and the worst curled toes I've ever seen. On went a pair of shoes, and by the next morning when it's brooder mates had removed it's shoes in an attempt to eat them, it was walking around on a brand new set of perfectly straight toes. Chick Shoes are amazing things! It's spraddle also corrected itself that day, without help from a hobble brace. I am at this point calling it "Forest", a name I borrowed from a friend who also had a little one she had to help out, that unfortunately didn't make it. Forest is definitely going to be a special needs chick, it seems to have some vision problems as well as a lack of coordination. It took 5 days of lessons to learn to drink from the quail waterer and 6 days to learn that the starter was for eating, not sleeping in. But it has learned both now and is doing both with gusto, also pooping normally. I am quite sure this chick will never be a completely normal pea, but at this point there is no way I can cull it, so it will be a permanent resident, for as long as it makes it. 
Meet Forest.
Meet Forest.
