Chick attacked while hatching!

[JackieDohoney]

Oh man, I have more serious chicken drama! I went out of town a couple of weeks ago and my pet sitter forgot to check one of the nesting boxes. So of course one of my hens went broody and I came home to her sitting on a clutch of 9 eggs. I had no idea how long, so I just locked the coop and let her keep sitting. She didn’t want anything to do with being moved. I went to check on her this morning and one of the babies was hatching, but she was attacking it! It’s still moving and cheeping, but there was some blood leaking from her shell and her membrane was drying out. I rushed the eggs out of the coop and set them up in the incubator. I rubbed some warm water on the hatching baby’s membrane with my (clean) fingertip. She looks like she’s sort of half-heartedly trying to get out, but I don’t know if she’s just tired or weak from blood loss. Should I try to finish helping or let her be? There’s already blood so I don’t know if I’d make things worse. I can’t see if any of the other eggs are pipping. I never even got the chance to candle them, so I have no idea if they are even still viable after all that!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I'd get them all out of there and into an incubator, or give them to another broody.
I have JUST lost 10 hatching and hatched chicks to two young hens who obviously didn't know what the h*ll they were doing. Some pecked to death, some squashed, some suffocated. I have one survivor.

 

[JackieDohoney]

I'd get them all out of there and into an incubator, or give them to another broody.
I have JUST lost 10 hatching and hatched chicks to two young hens who obviously didn't know what the h*ll they were doing. Some pecked to death, some squashed, some suffocated. I have one survivor.

I have them all in the incubator now. Unfortunately, it wasn’t warmed up quite yet. I thought I still had three to seven days, so I was going to spend today setting up the incubator in case there was an emergency situation like this. Oh man. It’s almost worse to lose one like this than to lose a whole clutch that never pipped. That poor baby. She’s still breathing but I can’t see very well inside the egg. It’s almost half zipped and open, but I can’t see much other than some feathers and her little beak.

 

[JackieDohoney]

Well, it’s been a couple of hours and she’s still trying. You can see the blood on the membrane, but the bottom part is still dried out. Wondering if I should try wiping more water on it. Every 15-20 minutes or so she’ll start cheeping again and push really hard, but she can’t seem to get the shell apart, even as broken as it is. Not sure if I should help at this point.

 

[Lillith37]

I was recently introduced to this article which may help you in your decision making and strategy.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

The article suggests using a q-tip and coconut oil instead of water for keeping the membrane moist.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Just wondering.... not informed at all.... but I wonder if having the shell broken up like that prevents the chick from turning inside the shell, to zip out. Too much flexibility?

Read that article above about assisted hatching, but then sit on your hands. I'd keep the membrane moist with coconut oil, and watch for the blood vessels to dry up. Make sure it's got a breathing hole through the membrane & shell at the beak. Since you don't know how far along this chick is, I would NOT help it out of the shell. Even after they start turning and kicking, it may be a day or a few before they've absorbed all of the yolk. One clue to watch for is the chewing and yawning action of its beak - that means it's still absorbing yolk. It may kick and peep, but then take a long rest, then kick again. Remember, once a chick IS ready to hatch, it can still take up to 24 hours to start zipping out of the shell. During this time, they'll sleep a lot.

 

[JackieDohoney]

I was recently introduced to this article which may help you in your decision making and strategy.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/guide-to-assisted-hatching-for-all-poultry.72886/

The article suggests using a q-tip and coconut oil instead of water for keeping the membrane moist.

Thank you so much for that. I went ahead and removed the membrane from her face and she seems to be breathing better. I’m hesitant to pull it off of the lower part of her in case she’s still absorbing, but she’s got a pretty good cheep going every few minutes. She’s making the nibbling movements mentioned in the article. I can see one of her feet moving out of the shell now, or at least trying to. I think I’ll give it a couple of hours and check again. This is single-handedly the most stressful hatch I’ve ever experienced! The poor thing is fighting like a champion though! I think I’ll name it Rocky

 

[BarnyardChaos]

I think I’ll name it Rocky

Or Roxanne...

 

[JackieDohoney]

Just wondering.... not informed at all.... but I wonder if having the shell broken up like that prevents the chick from turning inside the shell, to zip out. Too much flexibility?

Read that article above about assisted hatching, but then sit on your hands. I'd keep the membrane moist with coconut oil, and watch for the blood vessels to dry up. Make sure it's got a breathing hole through the membrane & shell at the beak. Since you don't know how far along this chick is, I would NOT help it out of the shell. Even after they start turning and kicking, it may be a day or a few before they've absorbed all of the yolk. One clue to watch for is the chewing and yawning action of its beak - that means it's still absorbing yolk. It may kick and peep, but then take a long rest, then kick again. Remember, once a chick IS ready to hatch, it can still take up to 24 hours to start zipping out of the shell. During this time, they'll sleep a lot.

I pulled the membrane off of her face but that’s it. I normally don’t ever even attempt to assist, it’s that attack that has me really worried. I’m going to leave her alone for a couple of hours though to see how she’s doing. She already seems better with it off her face. She’s a little fighter. Hopefully there’s no permanent damage from the attack. This is the most stressful hatch I’ve ever watched.

 

[JackieDohoney]

Rocky finished hatching last night at 10:30pm! So far she looks great! A little small but she’s a tough little chick! It looks like she absorbed all of her yolk and I can’t see any damage from the attack. None of the other eggs have pipped, but I think she hatched a tad early because of the attack. My husband, beautiful soul that he is (and has a rule against the chickens being in the house), said that if she’s an only child we need to raise her like a puppy He’s already talked about getting her a kennel so she can sleep inside sometimes and talked about letting her hang out with us on the couch like we did with our parrots. I have a feeling he’s been looking at Teapot Chicken’s instagram!