Jill G
In the Brooder
- Aug 2, 2020
- 7
- 8
- 34
I’ve had a hatching chick with a sidelong air sac for at least 10 days (when I noticed it, long before lockdown). She incubated in a maticoopx along with 30 others (offspring of 6 different hens). She is egg #9. She went into lockdown at her time on 4/22/23 (18 days). She immediately rocked and was one of the most active eggs. The viable eggs 1-11 hatched, but she had stopped moving. Unbelievably, she pipped last night (4/26/23), but in the center of the egg.
So she was pipped all night/day (about 15 hours) and peeped loudly, stuck her beak through the pip, but couldn’t get enough strength to break through. I began swabbing her with warm water (just cracking open the incubator) and coconut oil. Her pip actually seemed to heal back/glue the seam and didn’t open. An hour later, her cheeps got very faint, but she kept pecking, so I decided to help her pip again. She immediately stuck her beak through but couldn’t do anything more.
Then I brought her out of the incubator onto a warm/moist heating pad and flecked off about 1/4-1/2 inch of shell, moistened the membrane again with water and coconut oil. Put her back in the incubator. She tried and tried and tried, but absolutely could not move her beak enough to cut through any membrane.
No matter how much I moistened or chipped, she wasn’t budging. Her body looked all twisted and nothing was in the right place. Fearing a Frankenstein chick (is that a term), I took her out again so the others could hatch in peace without all of the opening of the incubator (two others had started to pip/zip).
It became apparent that she was 100% shrunk wrapped at this point but also looking odd! It looked as though her beak was coming out from inside of her body.
So decided to submerge her in warm water (all but the beak) and very gently worked at the membrane. Slowly, it stretched enough to help her wriggle a little.
Mystery solved - her head was bent and trapped under a wing. So no matter how much she would have pecked, I’m confident she would not have gotten out, based on her size/cramping in the shell/ and position of her head - too far away from anything to peck and impossible to turn.
My husband kept adding a little bit of warm water while I worked at her membrane and shell. She had already pooped inside of the shell and her umbilical cord was clear, attached, and twisted. When we got most of her detached - all but a little membrane - we put her right back into the incubator.
For the past 30 minutes, she’s been breathing, stretching out, and has only just now straightened her neck.
My apologies for lack of pictures or video during the ordeal. We were a bit preoccupied!
I’ll try to attach some of her now. She’s still alive and actually starting to thrive! Good thing, because two sisters are just about to emerge and hop all over the place, haha!
So she was pipped all night/day (about 15 hours) and peeped loudly, stuck her beak through the pip, but couldn’t get enough strength to break through. I began swabbing her with warm water (just cracking open the incubator) and coconut oil. Her pip actually seemed to heal back/glue the seam and didn’t open. An hour later, her cheeps got very faint, but she kept pecking, so I decided to help her pip again. She immediately stuck her beak through but couldn’t do anything more.
Then I brought her out of the incubator onto a warm/moist heating pad and flecked off about 1/4-1/2 inch of shell, moistened the membrane again with water and coconut oil. Put her back in the incubator. She tried and tried and tried, but absolutely could not move her beak enough to cut through any membrane.
No matter how much I moistened or chipped, she wasn’t budging. Her body looked all twisted and nothing was in the right place. Fearing a Frankenstein chick (is that a term), I took her out again so the others could hatch in peace without all of the opening of the incubator (two others had started to pip/zip).
It became apparent that she was 100% shrunk wrapped at this point but also looking odd! It looked as though her beak was coming out from inside of her body.
So decided to submerge her in warm water (all but the beak) and very gently worked at the membrane. Slowly, it stretched enough to help her wriggle a little.
Mystery solved - her head was bent and trapped under a wing. So no matter how much she would have pecked, I’m confident she would not have gotten out, based on her size/cramping in the shell/ and position of her head - too far away from anything to peck and impossible to turn.
My husband kept adding a little bit of warm water while I worked at her membrane and shell. She had already pooped inside of the shell and her umbilical cord was clear, attached, and twisted. When we got most of her detached - all but a little membrane - we put her right back into the incubator.
For the past 30 minutes, she’s been breathing, stretching out, and has only just now straightened her neck.
My apologies for lack of pictures or video during the ordeal. We were a bit preoccupied!
I’ll try to attach some of her now. She’s still alive and actually starting to thrive! Good thing, because two sisters are just about to emerge and hop all over the place, haha!
