Day 22, one egg left, can see internal pip, do I leave it!!!!

[crazy4hens]

So I have 7 hatched out of 10 eggs. Started with 15 shipped eggs, 5 didnt make it to lockdown, one died after pipping. The two eggs left I candled and one looks gone, nothing moving or do I see a beak.....The other there is movement and I see the beak in the air cell. I put it in a egg carton, should I leave it.....anyone else.....

Thanks Tracy

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I had six hatch 'normally' on Saturday and one that I just opened the egg and let it out so to speak a few minutes ago. It had pipped a big hole (size of a dime) but did nothing else for 36 hours. I figured it was time to help it. As it turns out all the egg sack was absorbed, and there were no veins in the membrane, and it did not bleed anywhere, but it was glued to the membrane in two places and could not turn. The membrane had dried near the hole, further down in the egg is was wet. The chick was peeping loudly, and struggling. It was glued to the membrane near the hole it had pipped. It may die, but it was going to die anyway. It could not turn to cut the top of the egg off. It did not die instantly though and it has been a half hour and I can here it peeping loudly in the next room.

 

[crazy4hens]

There is nothing on the outside of the egg, I am hoping to wait a bit and see if it can go on its own...But we will see

 

[Buugette]

Quote:
Did you help it out? Can't you wet the membrane? I'm new to hatching and I tend to panic...

D

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

I helped it out completely. I basically held the egg in my hand and cut the shell apart with a small pair of bandage scissors which have one blade rounded and not sharp on the tip. Almost all of the membrane was stuck to the shell...as it should be...and only a few places (on the head and one wing) was it stuck to the chick. There was a lot of room between the eggshell and the chick in like 85% of the egg. The two places the chick was stuck to the membrane...I cut the membrane away from the shell and when the chick was out, I pulled those pieces off the chick's head, and shoulder/wing. The chick was quite dry, but not fluffy. It sort of looks like it was slicked down with hair gel. It was only very wet near the bottom of the shell, away from the hole. Looks to me like it had time to dry in the 36 hours after it had poked the dime sized hole.

It had been struggling and peeping for a day and a half and I figured it was time to help it out. In that time apparently it absorbed the egg sack, and it had disengaged from the umbilicus. It just couldn't turn in the shell to chip away all around the top of it so it could push out and be born. In the day and a half all it did was make the pip hole bigger and bigger until it could not reach further with it's beak...as its head was stuck to the shell.

I don't know what would have happened if I had tried to wet the membrane. The dry membrane stuck to the chick was covered by shell, so first I started cutting the shell/membrane away where I could see a gap between that and the chick. The chick was pretty loose inside the shell. By the time I'd cut most of the top off and got to the stuck part...which is where it needed to be wet...I could see that the rest of the chick was just laying loose in the shell bottom. So I clipped off the bottom, and removed the shell fragments stuck to the membrane and head and shoulder...and peeled off the membrane. It seemed kind of pointless to leave it just laying loose in the shell bottom and letting it climb out by itself. It was so loose in there that it basically fell out into my other hand.

It is laying on a kleenex nest, under a small clear glass bowl in the brooder tub. So far it is breathing and hasn't died. The other chicks are trying to peck it through the glass. I figure if it is going to die, it will do so pretty quickly.

 

[Buugette]

Quote:
Sounds like you did everything you could... up to the baby now. Pics?

I have 4 white polish due to hatch on Wednesdsay... I'm a nervous wreck.

D

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

Here are the six babies, there is no pic of the one I hatched yet.
It has been over five hours and it is still alive, and trying to stand up. It peeps.
The others are still trying to peck it through the clear bowl it is under.

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

Well, it's been about 21 hours and the little thing is going strong. So far, so good.
I'm glad I went ahead and released it which is generally against advice...I'm sure it would be dead by now.

Knowing when is the hard part. I'll base future 'help' on the size of the pip, how long a big hole has been made without further action (six hours plus) and by this I mean long after the pip...when the pip becomes larger, but the chick doesn't seem to be rotating and zipping. And on the color of the exposed membrane (tannish or brownish not red) and how dry it appears. Plus...the amount of 'room' I can see through the hole. My chick had a lot of room between the body and the membrane except where it was actually stuck to it.

 

[1sttimer]

awwww poor thing but good that you helped it out but what does zipping mean??