Help ASAP with hole in 19 day old egg!!!

[alabamaterri]

I went out to the coop and there was a hole (about half the size of a dime) that a rooster had pecked into a 19 day old egg. The chick is moving and I can see it breathing. It looks like the hole is near the wing of the chick. I brought the egg in, place a wet paper towel, loosely around it and placed it under a heat lamp at around 100 degrees. 12 hours later, nothing else has happened but the chick is still breathing.

WHAT do I need to do? I usually buy baby chicks. This is my first time of having a hen lay one. I found this site by searching on youtube and watching someone assist in cracking the shell open and helping one out. Should I do that? Should I just leave it alone?

Help!!!!!!
Terri

 

[yinepu]

At day 19 the chick should be fine... leave it to hatch on it's own for now.. a little too early to intervene.. Just keep the humidity up and keep it warm .. do you have an incubator?

 

[alabamaterri]

No, I don't have an incubator. Just a heat lamp.

and am keeping it moist with a wet paper towel. Anything else to do? or watch for?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I would consider putting it back under the hen.
Otherwise you have to get the humidity over 50 % but not too high. 100-101.
Don't do anything else, helping rarely works.

 

[alabamaterri]

The hen, today, has abandoned the eggs she was sitting on (they were due at various dates--none close to being due). A lot of my hens will lay their eggs in box #1, although we have 6 boxes. She was sitting on various colored eggs

So....I don't have the option of putting it back under the hen. Any other suggestions????

 

[yinepu]

do you have the materials to fashion a home made hatcher?

 

[alabamaterri]

I have no clue how to make one. Like I said, we have always bought the baby chicks, kept them under a heat lamp until they got big enough to put out. This is our first experience (and the hens) with laying and setting on eggs. Until recently, we always took the eggs up, but decided to let a hen "sit" on some to see if we would have baby chicks.
hasn't turned out so good....

 

[ReikiStar]

No worries. Put all the eggs in one box, keep the heat lamp on them (hope you have a thermometer to keep track of the temps 99.5 - 100F is just right) and keep the eggs covered with moist towels around the outside and damp/wet paper towels over them. Just keep in mind they need air flow so don't smother the eggs with towels.

Breathe.

They will be fine. And thank goodness you saw that opened egg. Just keep them warm and moist. Then just wait.

If you're inclined to help anyone out of the egg since their lockdown period has been disrupted, go to the beginning of this section and read the link that talks about helping. We had to help our very first hatching egg and it all went perfectly. If you help, our thought is, clear enough of the dried membranes so they can breathe, and give them the chance to get themselves out the rest of the way.

Good luck!!!

 

[wolftracks]

There are lots of directions for homemade incubators on this site. I mean lots.

Do you have an old lamo you can take apart and maybe a styro ice chest?

 

[yinepu]

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