Eggs are hatching, but one looks smashed, not zipping??

[dianneS]

I put my incubator eggs under a broody a two days ago. They are hatching this morning. I have one healthy chick so far and a second is hatching, but the egg looks smashed all over. Its not zipping normally. I can see the chick moving, but I'm not sure if she can get out of the shell.

The hen is a small hen, so I don't know how the egg got so smooshed looking? She's got all the eggs positioned in a ring with space in the middle so there should be plenty of room for the little ones to get out of their shells.

What should I do about this smooshy looking one? Should I help it out or just wait and see what happens?

 

[dianneS]

help??

 

[Revelle]

I'm sorry, but I haven't any experience with this myself.

Non-practiced experience (aka read about): Most people say to just 'Sit on your hands!' because of natural selection and most of the time they can get out themselves and help hurts them. But, if it's smooshed and still alive, maybe, very very very (very) carefully help move a piece of shell that's already cracked all around it off, near the chicks head. But make sure that it's extremely careful, because if it starts bleeding, the chick can bleed to death. Just move the shell enough to give the little one room to move and re-attempt itself to finish zipping.

Oh, and make sure it doesn't dry out, since it dries a lot faster if the shell is already cracked and the chick might get stuck in because it's too tight/dry.

I'm not sure if that will be as good in practice as in theory.... Hopefully someone with personal experience sees your thread soon! I hope everything turns out fine!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I leave them alone. There is a small component of that I really don't want a weak chick adding its genes to my flock, but mainly that I will probably do more harm than good. The harm I'm talking about is not just to the chick that maybe able to hatch if I leave it alone but in the disturbance with the hen, other perfectly viable eggs or chicks already born may get harmed.

 

[fasbendera]

It sounds like what happened with my first hatch two years ago. It was probably a weaker shell but the hen must have just stepped on it and it smushed after the chick started zipping. I didn't have my hen seperated from the others so it could have been another hen trying to kick her out. I just left it alone survival of the fittest and who knows how much damage might be done already poor thing, all part of nature.

 

[dianneS]

I went out to check on the chick and it was too late.

Now I'm wishing I would have helped. It was almost out of the shell. Its head and beak were out and it was fully formed and perfect. It was just smooshed and has suffocated.

One more egg has started to pip, so I'm excited about that one, so far the rest aren't doing much. I'm disappointed that I lost a chick that I think I could have saved. I could have even brought it inside to the incubator and helped it out and I'm sure it would have been fine.

Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

Its strange I started these eggs in the bator and the one that is pipping now, is the very last one I set. I actually put it in the bator more than 18 hours after the rest and its one of the first to hatch. Interesting.

I did hatch extras to make up for losses, so hopefully by the end of the day I'll have six healthy chicks!