Hatching Disaster

[Raisingmsdaisy]

HELP PLEASE!!!! Chick has top shell off but still in egg and I can see membrane is dried around it. Not sure if I should help it's been almost 24 hours and need to know if it's safe to remove dried membrane. So scared of hurting chick.

I had this happen to one of mine at the end when my humidity plummeted. I tried to allow the chick to hatch on its own but I could tell that it was stuck to the membrane, so I carefully removed the membrane and remaining shell - ever so carefully- I did not remove anything that looked like it was still attached. Turned out nothing was attached at all, it just couldn't get free from the dried out membrane. Now I have a healthy chick

 

[Raisingmsdaisy]

I can almost guarantee they didn't die because of you lockdown humidity. Many of us use 75% and it goes to 85 or greater. Lockdown humidity doesn't damage eggs. However the 45-55% during the first 17 days has a high probability of being the culprit as humidity that high causes high occurances of drowning at hatch time because the egg can not loose enough moisture. I'll give you a humidity link you might find useful. Sorry to hear about the losses.
http://letsraisechickens.weebly.com...anuals-understanding-and-controlling-humidity

AmyLynn...that was the best article on humidity EVER! Now I understand the why of it all and the practice of marking the air cells so you can adjust as needed. Looking back, I am certain that my air cells were too small as my candling did reveal this. I just didn't know what I was looking for. Now I know my humidity was too high during the first 18 days.
Thank you so much for sharing that link!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

AmyLynn...that was the best article on humidity EVER! Now I understand the why of it all and the practice of marking the air cells so you can adjust as needed. Looking back, I am certain that my air cells were too small as my candling did reveal this. I just didn't know what I was looking for. Now I know my humidity was too high during the first 18 days.
Thank you so much for sharing that link!

You are very welcome and I am glad that it has helped. You'll have to post or pm me how your next hatch goes, or join us on the hands on hatching and help thread anytime.