A Troublesome Hatch

[aimz14291]

I work in a preschool and once a year we incubate eggs. We have had so many problems in the past two years that i really hope we don't do it anymore! (Last year the incubator broke the weekend before hatching so none hatched!)

This year i have two chicks I'm worried about.

Chick 1: The lid got knocked off the incubator mid hatch for one of the chicks, causing it to what i guess become stuck to the membrane/egg. It's back and bottom were out, and the shell and membrane was kind of 'glued' around its middle, then it's head/wings and feet were inside the egg. It fought for 36hours and i rang the hatchery and they said to leave it and that it probably wasn't strong enough. Left it a few more hours before deciding (after reading posts on internet) to just warmly wet the membrane and pick a bit of the shell off. The chick then stuck its leg through the small new crack and kept pushing to get out and managed to crack it more until it flopped its head out to be able to lay down. I then pulled off the rest of the stuck egg so it could stand. And it's been chirping, running around and eating and drinking ever since. The only thing i'm concerned about is that the last bit of shell stuck on its back (after a week) i kept wetting with warm water to try and pull it off without the feathers but ended up the chick losing some feathers and have a bald spot. Will this grow back fine? It also has some gunk stuck around its bum, should i clean it off? Is it sign of infection? Have i done more harm than good?!

Chick 2: Chick 2 also seemed to have the same drama's as chick 1 but we thought it would probably die half in it's shell, it just didn't seem to have the same 'will to live' as the other chick. However, two days after beginning to zip (three after first pip) it was still alive and sponteaously trying to get out. So we did the same we did with chick 1 (assisted around the 'glued' area) and it then eventually pushed itself out, but then just laid on the incubator floor in the position it would of been in the egg (for at least 3 hours before we closed work for the day). We thought it would just pass away over night, but we came in the next morning and it was alive and running around the incubator with another chick that had (randomly) hatched overnight.
It had some dried membrane stuck on it's back but it flaked off by itself by day 2, it also has a thick amount of membrane stuck around its bum, Should i assist to get it off? IT's also half the size of all the other chicks, Assuming it is a 'runt' , will it have any future problems?

Four hatched with no problems, these two with some dramas, 1 pipped and then it seemed like it accidentally popped its yolk sack overnight because we came in the next day and it was dead and egg was filled with fluid, and then 4 didn't hatch at all.


(note: Another preschool told us they were told to assist after so long, hence why we ended up deciding to just go ahead and give them a little help)

 

[Ridgerunner]

As long as the chick can poop, you can leave it alone. I had one like that which I gave to a broody hen to raise. I rinsed it in warm water to get the worst of it off but the down was still gunked down. In less than a week that gunk was gone.

I would not want shell stuck to it, that could give the others something to peck at. But don’t worry about the bald spot. That will grow back fine. I don’t know what that membrane looks like on that second one. If it’s a target for pecking I’d try to remove it.

Knowing when to intervene is a real problem. If you do it too early, you can kill the chick. If you wait too long, the chick can die. Sometimes they die anyway. I’ve probably lost about half the ones I helped, they were just not strong enough to make it on their own anyway. But if I feel like it is something that I caused, like opening the incubator like that during hatch, I usually help.