Hatching: When do you give up hope? FINAL UPDATE pg2

[mothersin2ition]

Is she still sitting?

Yes, and she's veeeery intent to do so. She gets really upset anytime I take them out to look at them. She currently has the two eggs, and 5 babies all tucked under her LOL. She's quite the first-time mama .
Oh man I hope they're okay! I just can't stand the thought of those little babies, fully formed, but dead inside their shell

ETA: some more baby fluff!
Heres mama and two baby peeps looking out

Mama with back-end of baby sticking out from under her, baby is ontop of another egg LOL

 

[shelleyd2008]

If she is still setting, I wouldn't worry til she leaves the nest. Then you could candle them, and if they are alive, either help them, or put them in something to keep them warm. I don't know if you have a bator, but I saw someone on here that said they used an electric skillet, with a towel in the bottom, and a shot glass of water in it, as an incubator. Right now, as far as humidity, the more the better!

 

[mothersin2ition]

Then you could candle them, and if they are alive, either help them, or put them in something to keep them warm

How can you tell if they're still alive? Besides hearing a chirp, or something. I candled them tonight, just to see if there was any movement or anything, but I couldnt really see anything besides the big air cell and the large black mass that is the chick.​

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
How can you tell if they're still alive? Besides hearing a chirp, or something. I candled them tonight, just to see if there was any movement or anything, but I couldnt really see anything besides the big air cell and the large black mass that is the chick.

Supposedly, you should be able to see them move, but I never do at that stage. Don't have a strong enough light I guess. You could just open them up and see, then if it is alive and moving or peeping, you could help it out.
Also if you tap the side of the egg, it should tap back at least. at that stage, I would think it would have broke through the membrane if it is going to.

 

[mothersin2ition]

Update Friday:
Mother hen has abandoned nest, so I took eggs inside. I figured they must not be viable and I wanted to open them to see if there was any indication of what went wrong. So, I opened up the top end of one, and guess what! Live baby chicken inside. Here's my dilemma: It is not peeping but is moving quite a bit and it is still fully enclosed in the membrane. What do I do? For now, I have moved it to a cardboard box with heat lamp over it- reading about 102 degrees, and I have a wet sponge in a bowl in the box for moisture.
Any suggestions??? Should I just help him out? Let him die?? I just read the sticky thread on hatching/incubating eggs and it seems most people say you shouldn't be helping at all.

 

[thndrdancr]

I know there are a lot of differing opinions on this.

I cant stand to just "let them die". you can very very gently open the membrane where the beak/aircell is so it can get air.

If there is ANY blood then STOP. At least it can get air that way and sometimes they will take a day to absorb the blood and the yolks.

If there is no blood, you can very gently peel a bit of the membrane away at a time. I usually do just a bit so they can get air, then let them rest for a couple hours, then check them again, etc....

I have saved quite a few that way, but also lost a couple too.

Oh and a word of warning, you will probably HAVE to open the membrane now, and fairly quickly I would think, as it dries very quickly once the eggshell is opened and they probably wont be able to do it themselves. It gets very tuff.

 

[needmorechickens!]

Yeah once you open it, that membrane starts shrink wrapping the chick quickly. See if you can keep that membrane moist and zip the shell all the way around.
~Rebecca

 

[mothersin2ition]

Just wanted to update:
Chick passed on. It was alive for quite a while, but never did pip. I found him dead this evening so I took him out the rest of the way and saw that his abdomen was open, so I'm assuming that's what happened. Also, he was sideways in the shell and so wasn't positioned to pip into the air cell in the first place. Poor baby.
Thanks for all the advice.

Oh I almost forgot to add that I opened the other egg this morning after candling one more time and saw that it looked different somehow. Turns out it was a bad egg. I think it had quit developing a couple of weeks ago because there was only an eye swimming in yellow goo

I guess 5/8 isn't so bad. I'm just happy most of them made it

 

[magikchick]

I have found that the hen seems to know best when it comes to eggs hatching. The ones they leave have something wrong with them. I also have had them push bad eggs out of the nest.