Day 24: Opened. Alive. Put back in incubator. Now what?

Date sort Score sort
I can't tell you exactly what to do. But I'd but into lockdown with moisture. Or I'd carefully wet the membrane and if I see no veins tear a hole near the beak. But I have helped hatch before. Without being able to see more it is hard to advise. I'm surprised it isn't internally pipped it may not actually be ready to come out and need more time. I'm afraid at day 24 I'd have to think about helping but there are people who have reported hatching at day 25 so you could put it in a moist lockdown situation and wait.

Type assist hatch or assisted hatch in search and do a little reading. THere are lots of choices and of course at this point the chick may not live no matter what you do it isn't always a matter of doing it right.
 
Thanks kizanne. I wet the membrane with a few drops of water, and there are lots of veins. Any additional thoughts? I appreciate the advice.

 
Chicks don't have much blood they need all of that you see. I would let it incubate for a little while longer. I usually get warm water and moisten every 4 hours while it absorbs its blood and yolk. I haven't had one that wasn't externally pipped. A previous poster recommended pipping it and nothing else. I'm torn on that. Part of me says yeah internally pip it and then wait keeping the membrane moist without getting water in the beak or inside the internal membrane. A chick can live 3 days on the yolk if it has air and water so that is a for assisted pip. However I'm not sure he's ready and if you nick a vein they don't usually make it when there is that much blood. You'll have to make that decision but either way keep the membrane moist.

I find a moist paper towel can help hold the egg with the head/beak end up making the moistening easier. I always use very warm water so as not to chill the chick.
 
Thanks! I know some people believe you should never help and some do. Some of the people who say never help also throw eggs out around day 23. I guess I'd rather interfere and risk it. You've given good advice. I will try to keep it moist and give it more time.

I'm never letting my hen attempt to hatch chicks again. This is the second fiasco with this. I had no issues with my incubator babies.
 
You don't have to hatch it all at once but if he's still alive and not internally pipped I'd make a small air hole where the beak it. Keep the membrane moist and wait. As they get older at some point they need air. I think that may help trigger the blood going in to the body. I still think this may be 'early' either by low temp or by bad date calculation. What day did you set them.
 
At this point I'd pip the chick. Locate the beak and carefully tear a small peice of membrane away with a pair of tweezers. Like stated earlier this will signal the chick to draw in the blood and yolk sac. At 24 days the chick will be quickly depleted of nutrients and will be much weaker. Keep the membrane moist and an hour or two after pipping see if you can't get some more membrane away from the chick without it bleeding. Stop if it bleeds and continue in another hour. Repeat this until the chick is out. I would bet money on it that this chick won't hatch itself out and needs assistance if it has a chance to survive.

I had a similar situation years ago. A broody of mine was sitting on some eggs and there was this horrible smell. I suspected a rotten egg exploded so I lifted the broody up and yep, sure enough, there was a horrific mess. So I cleaned her up, cleaned up the nest, and since it was day 24 or 25 in the middle of a really hot summer I decided to get rid of all the eggs. I figured they had gone bad and since they were contaminated wouldn't hatch anyways. It was mid morning so I didn't candle them, I just listened for peeping and cracked opened the fat end and peeked inside to make sure there wasn't a chick. When I got to the last egg I opened the large end and the thing started bleeding. I couldn't believe one of the eggs was still alive and I was in shock! I was maybe 14 or 15 at the time, no incubator, no car, the dumb broody was off the nest and freaking out, and I lived miles away from any civilization. So I brought the egg inside with me and decided I'd do what I could to help it. I brought it inside, cradeled it in my hands and kept it warm. It looked a lot like yours does now, except I worried about how it would breathe so after a few hours I located its beak and broke a small hole. I noticed the membrane didn't bleed when I did this so I tore a little off around the edges. It started to bleed again so I moistened the drying membrane with warm water, waited another hour or so and tore a little more off until I seen more blood. I stopped, waited, and repeated until I had the little chick out. It took ALL DAY. Good thing I was a kid without a job or something, and I didn't have school! I would've had to call in sick or play hookie. The chick ended up living and of course turned out to be a rooster. Helping a chick isn't always a bad thing if a person has patience and the chick is developed enough to breathe oxygen. Going slow and having patience is the key!
Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice. It's definitely the right date calculation. The eggs I incubated one day before these have been up and around for days, and they hatched on time. I'm a bit worried because I couldn't see it's beak. I'll look for it again when I get home.
 

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