Didn't think this one through....turkey eggs, ideas?

I usually give chicks 24 hours. If they haven't made it out by then, that's when I dive in to help. Honestly hatching is the hardest, most intense thing that lil bird will ever do, so it's not surprising if they take breaks, sometimes for hours. If you feel like this one's really stuck (ie, the membrane is dry and the chick's peeps are weak, not just few, but weak or getting weak), then you can certainly go in earlier.

If you're going to go in, get a room nice and warm and humid if you can (bathroom works great, turn the shower on and let it warm and steam the room), and get a towel wet with hot water to hold the egg on while working. Don't keep the egg out of the incubator for more than a few minutes at a time. Take it out, chip away a little bit of the shell, wet the membrane with warm water and look for veins. If you see veins full of blood on the membrane, just put the chick back and let it sit, because you were too early helping- it's still absorbing the blood and the yolk. If you see blood while chipping the shell, immediately stop and put the egg back. The best tool I've found for chipping just the egg and not the membrane is actually a push pin. I just take and slide the tip under a bit of shell and pull it up toward me, and it cracks into little pieces I can chip away at.

If you chip away shell and don't see veins on the membrane, then you can wet the membrane again with warm water and use the pin to slowly, gently, slit the membrane a small amount. Again, if you see blood, stop and put the egg back. If the towel the egg is on cools, put the egg back it's been out too long. If you haven't seen blood or veins, you can wait 15-20 minutes between taking the egg out of the incubator. As best as you can, try to chip a "zip" line around the egg so the chick can still do some of the work of pushing itself out. Only pull the chick from the egg if it absolutely cannot do so itself. Most of the time, if it's tired and you "zip" for it, it will get excited when it realizes it and begin to push anew to get out.

Good luck!
 
He is out and getting fluffy =) Sheesh this is stressful! Thank you Kedreeva..there are still 2 more turkey eggs and 18 chicken eggs in the incubator, I guess I have instructions if I need them now.
This one wasn't quick and noisy like the first one..and he was breathing hard so it made me worry.
I hope Momma Dot takes this one too.
 

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