Ok. I had a broody hen sitting on eggs. For some reason she hatched three but then abandoned the rest. I brought them in and two appeared to be full term chicks so i put them in my brooder as i dont have an incubator. One died whilst trying to hatch. The other egg cracked just before i took it off the broody so i opened the top, air sac end a little more to check on the chick. Ive now got an egg with a live, moving chick in the inner membrane but no top on the egg. Its been like that for 24 hrs now and the little chick is very active but shows no sign of popping its head up to breathe air. There is no blood but is lots of yoke and a clearish liquid. So the question is... Is there any hope for this chick and if so what can i do to help? Any help appreciated... I know its a far from ideal solution but i couldnt just leave it to die in its cracked shell when the hen abandoned it!
The only thing I can say is that you have got to keep the humidity up or it will be shrink-wrapped in the membrane. Hens know a lot of things and so if they abandon some eggs I would leave it at that because there might be something wrong with the chick inside. There are some threads on hatching without an incubator: https://www.backyardchickens.com/search.php?search=hatching+without+incubator I don't have expertise in that area so if you care to search until someone else answers you, here you go!
