Guide to Assisted Hatching for All Poultry

Thanks for explaining and settling my nerves. ?

Okay few thank you so much

Thanks to this guide I have a gorgeous healthy fluffy baby! My incubator ran a little low it seems & only one egg out of eight managed to develop. The chick was very late & then seemed stuck in the shell. A very dark brown egg, hard as a rock. At the end of day 22 the chick had been tapping for ages with no pip, and was starting to sound distressed. I was beside myself with worry. Following this guide I was able to carefully open the shell above the air sac. Thanks to this guide I realised she still wasn’t quite ready to come out, with chewing beak movements & some blood vessels visible. So I put coconut oil on the membrane, cranked the humidity up to 80 and left her in her shell & put her back in the incubator where she chirped and chatted happily. Nearly 24 hours later (at the end of day 23) she got wriggly & restless & seemed ready to come out. Blood vessels had receded & more cheeping than chewing. Well she needed a lot of help coming out but she made it! She’s now a fluffy three day old & doing really well. I am so grateful for this guide! I’d never have managed without it. She was a big chick who could barely move in a rock hard dark brown egg incubated a bit too low. Against all the odds she made it! Thank you, thank you to the writer for sharing your knowledge and experience!! My little bundle of fluff is now a lively three day old in a box beside my bed chatting happily under her brooder. She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for this guide. I’m one very happy mummy!!

Excellent in-depth article!
Should be made a sticky in the Incubation & Hatching Eggs Forum!

Thank you so much for this wonderful article and the pictures too. It has been a wealth of information for me today, as I have a chick trying to bust open on the side way away from the air sac. Fortunately it has turned its head finally towards the air sac. We may still need to assist, but now we know when and how to help if need be.

Thank you !

Brilliant, informative article. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

Thanks for this excellent article. I'll be reading through it again with my second hatch.

Wow thanks

Have never had to assist, but I've read this article many times just in case!

Easily the best guide you can find for assisting during hatch.

Ok, I know this post is old, but my 13 yo son and I read your article, and just successfully assisted a coturnix quail chick out and s/he is doing great! Three eggs hatched two days ago. One was pipped, and was bruising like you showed, but sadly it never absorbed its yolk sac and was dead before we tried to assist. But this little fella made it with assistance! Thank you! We never would've tried without your instruction. There is one more pipped egg, but we will wait a bit to see if that one will work itself out.

This advice and instructions saved the life of my favorite duck. He hadn't hatched after 4 days and the mother pushed the egg out of the nest . His foot was wrapped around his head and he couldn't move to unzip. THANK YOU !

Brilliant suitable for everyone to understand. Thank you.

I would never have had my three call ducklings hatch without this post! I had to assist all four, I sadly lost one but am thankful for the other three! One was malpositioned and fighting for life, but I followed the advice here and his now fighting fit! Thanks so much!

This is my first time incubating eggs.
thank you so much for all the info!
I’m much more prepared for hatching time.

Excellent guide. I am definitely going to be referencing this in the future.

This article has helped me save countless baby chicks. It has all the necessary information to walk you through an assisted hatch and help you figure out if you should assist. It also expains malpositions, which I had trouble understanding until I read this. This is my go to for any hatching questions or worries I or any others may have. Thank you so much Pyxis! I am so grateful for this article. Here is my sweet little guy who would have died if it weren't for this. He was my first assisted hatch. He is the perfect protector for my hens.

A must read for anyone who wants to be prepared for hatching complications.
I read this article about 5 times before my first call hatch, and followed it to the letter. Thank goodness, because I needed the help! Fantastic article that prepared me for the real deal.

best guide ever for helping chicks get out when things go wrong...
saved several and they all turn out just great, even better, since they are so grateful.