Today is day 22, I can hear the little chick chirping inside the egg, should I break it open and help it??
So now day 23 there is a pretty big hole where the chick has broken thru but its been like that for almost 24 hours. Should I still stand by? At what point do I help it??
By the way thanks for all of the input, I think most of the time it is better to wait and let nature take its course, I just dont want the thing to get stuck and die. Also the membrane is pretty dry. Should I put a wet towel under it? My Silke is sitting on it too, so that might make it a little tougher for the chick. I put some other eggs under there for a spacer.
Good greif, who knew hatching eggs could be such an ordeal. The sikie finally hatched and looks like it will be fine. What I did do was remove a tiny bit of the shell leaving the membrane to make it easier for the chick to come out of the shell. I would say for the most part you guys are probably right in saying that we should just let nature take its course. I had no problem with the other two eggs the silke hatched, ALTHOUGH, those I got locally, there were not shipped and they spent the whole time under my broody silkie and were never in an incubator. Thats not to say that there wont be a time when you need to intervene, but its pretty hard to figure out when and if you should. I think some of you guys are right too, we get too impatient!!! Anyway, there is a lot of excellent info about this stuff on this website.
Now the next trick is to get the silkie to adopt this other baby silike thats 4 days old. Im hoping I can sneak her in later....I'll post a pic soon, I need to leave them alone for a little bit...
So now day 23 there is a pretty big hole where the chick has broken thru but its been like that for almost 24 hours. Should I still stand by? At what point do I help it??
By the way thanks for all of the input, I think most of the time it is better to wait and let nature take its course, I just dont want the thing to get stuck and die. Also the membrane is pretty dry. Should I put a wet towel under it? My Silke is sitting on it too, so that might make it a little tougher for the chick. I put some other eggs under there for a spacer.
Good greif, who knew hatching eggs could be such an ordeal. The sikie finally hatched and looks like it will be fine. What I did do was remove a tiny bit of the shell leaving the membrane to make it easier for the chick to come out of the shell. I would say for the most part you guys are probably right in saying that we should just let nature take its course. I had no problem with the other two eggs the silke hatched, ALTHOUGH, those I got locally, there were not shipped and they spent the whole time under my broody silkie and were never in an incubator. Thats not to say that there wont be a time when you need to intervene, but its pretty hard to figure out when and if you should. I think some of you guys are right too, we get too impatient!!! Anyway, there is a lot of excellent info about this stuff on this website.
Now the next trick is to get the silkie to adopt this other baby silike thats 4 days old. Im hoping I can sneak her in later....I'll post a pic soon, I need to leave them alone for a little bit...
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