Okay, so, here's the scoop.
I set 7 eggs into lockdown Wednesday 1/18/12, late yesterday/early today was hatch day. Two eggs pipped Saturday, I went to sleep, woke up at 2 AM to the sound of the first egg hatching. This chick was not either one of the original pippers. Then, by the morning, there was another chick, one of the first two to pip. By then, the other one of the first eggs to pip had begun zipping open her shell. So I come home today, and my one expensive, purebred egg has hatched (a cochin, she's perfect and beautiful), but NOT the first egg to hatch. Looked like she had zipped her shell open, and then stopped, though she was still struggling and pushing and things. She had a little weird green goop caked around the edges of her membrane. Well, after her being stuck for almost 24 hours crying and struggling and ALMOST out, I decided to give it a look. Sure enough, her membrane was stuck to her down by some sort of dried goop. No way she would have gotten out of that on her own. Anyways, I know what a shrink-wrapped chick is, and this wasn't the classic one of those... The other three pipped, zipped, and flopped free all by themselves, effortlessly.
Anyways, I decided to soak her feathers a little with some warm water and freed the membrane after a lot of painstaking procedures. When the bottom of her egg finally came free, there was a big chunk of weird green crumbly goop. What the heck is that stuff??!
I know I probably should have waited longer, but she was totally stuck and crying... I know she might not make it because of this, but can anyone tell me what that gunk was? I'm leaving her up to God's hands, or fate, or whatever you may believe in.
Thanks
I set 7 eggs into lockdown Wednesday 1/18/12, late yesterday/early today was hatch day. Two eggs pipped Saturday, I went to sleep, woke up at 2 AM to the sound of the first egg hatching. This chick was not either one of the original pippers. Then, by the morning, there was another chick, one of the first two to pip. By then, the other one of the first eggs to pip had begun zipping open her shell. So I come home today, and my one expensive, purebred egg has hatched (a cochin, she's perfect and beautiful), but NOT the first egg to hatch. Looked like she had zipped her shell open, and then stopped, though she was still struggling and pushing and things. She had a little weird green goop caked around the edges of her membrane. Well, after her being stuck for almost 24 hours crying and struggling and ALMOST out, I decided to give it a look. Sure enough, her membrane was stuck to her down by some sort of dried goop. No way she would have gotten out of that on her own. Anyways, I know what a shrink-wrapped chick is, and this wasn't the classic one of those... The other three pipped, zipped, and flopped free all by themselves, effortlessly.
Anyways, I decided to soak her feathers a little with some warm water and freed the membrane after a lot of painstaking procedures. When the bottom of her egg finally came free, there was a big chunk of weird green crumbly goop. What the heck is that stuff??!
I know I probably should have waited longer, but she was totally stuck and crying... I know she might not make it because of this, but can anyone tell me what that gunk was? I'm leaving her up to God's hands, or fate, or whatever you may believe in.
Thanks
