Hatching Egg

[tlscott54]

My cochin hen has 3 chicks with a couple of eggs not hatched yet. Brought the 2 eggs in to candle and one was peeping and has chipped a hole in the shell! Hen didn't appear interested in egg at the time I took. Want back out and put it under her. If she isn't setting on it when I go back out how do I go about helping this chick out??

 

[Pyxis]

If she gets up and abandons it, the best thing you can do for it is put it in an incubator if you have one. If you don't and you want to try to save it, you might try putting it under a heat lamp. Try to adjust the heat lamp so the temperature on the egg is about 99.5 degrees. Too hot and it will die, too cold and it will also die, so try to use a thermometer to get it right. Also try to keep the area around it moist so that it doesn't get shrinkwrapped. Maybe put it in a bin or tub with wet sponges or paper towels to try to get the humidity up. Then just wait and see. Of course, hens usually will sit on the nest a day or two after the first chicks hatch for exactly this reason, so you probably don't have much to worry about!

 

[tlscott54]

Have an incubator but it's in use right now. I will check progress in about an hour... if mom isn't setting on it I will bring in and try to help it hatch. The chicks she has are about 3 days old now. She was setting on a bunch of eggs so I'm guessing this came from another hen