- Thread starter
- #10,771
Curled feet, is not something assisting causes.
Assisting-successfully assisting depends mostly on timing and reason. As you've seen, assisting too early can be a quicker death sentence than assisting too late.
Set guidelines for yourself. My guidelines are not to start a full on assist until about 24 hours after pip. (Unless there's signs of distress from the chick.) But, if there are any significant veining at any point, stop and replace, no matter how long it has been. If the vascular system between egg and chick has not shut down, assisting will only harm, not help.
I'm not a big one for going into an unpipped shell, but if I've had a internal pip for over 24 hours I will on occasion add a safety hole. If I do this, I give them longer than 24 for progression to zip. I don't go into an egg without at least an internal pip, and only then for a safety hole.
The other big factor of success is the why. If the eggs are on day 24 and not hatching on their own, chances of assisting successfully and having healthy thriving chicks are much much lower. Delayed development/hatch often denotes weak, failure to thrive chicks. Not saying one shouldn't try to help if so chooses, just to expect a lower success rate. Assists being done on chicks that have deformities, abnormalities (other than splay leg/curled toes) have a lower success rate and a higher need to cull rate. But, often it is not known until after assist that these problems exist.
Willingness to assist has to carry a certain willingness to cull if needed and to be able to accept the outcome without second guessing yourself. You can drive yourself crazy with "if I hadn't assisted would it have made it" or "if only I assisted maybe it would have"... you just have to accept the outcome and use it as a learning experience.
Assisting an on time pipper because of membranes drying, malpositioning, large chicks unable to turn, large vaults on crested chicks, etc, are usually successful assists if done correctly, at the right time.
