help unhatched egg! first hatching!

[wornoutmomto3]

This is my first hatching(road island red/brown leghorn cross). Everything was going great. I had seven eggs in the (homemade)incubator. The first four hatched no problem. Three eggs remained in the incubator unhatched. It is now day 23 I had a strong feeling they were dead. I decided to open them to make sure. The first two were long gone. One was a malposition and the other probably died a few days ago, there was a strong oder coming from the egg. However, when I opened the third there was movement under the membrane. (I went through the air pocket just in case.) I moistened the membrane, lightly cover the opening in the shell with a moistened paper towel, and placed the egg back in the incubator. My question is, does the chick stand a chance of survival? The membrane around the chick is still intact just the outer membrane and shell have been opened. It does stand a chance of surviving is there anything else I can do, or do I just closely monitor the situation?

 

[Manningjw]

Do what you did, leave it in the incubator to keep trying to hatch. If you need to the membrane may need to be moistened like you did already depending on how much shell you cracked off. If it is strong enough to have a chance at survival, it will kick itself out of the shell and hatch on it's own. Are there still visible blood vessels in the membrane? How long ago did your other 4 hatch?

I have been guilty of over assisting a chick that ultimately wasn't strong enough to survive on her own, it was a long battle trying to help her survive after hatching that ultimately was futile.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

The first two hatched out end of day 21(pictured above), and the other two hatched out begining of day 22. There are very faint blood vessels visible. Also, I can see what looks like a leg or toe(not sure). Is that good or bad?

 

[wornoutmomto3]

It has been a about two hours since the shell was opened. I had to remoisten the membrane which is still intact. The chick is pretty active right now as well. Praying he(or she) makes it. If they do I have a name all picked out, Lucky for a cockrel and Miracle for a pullet. The kids helped name the others. The ones in the picture are Peepers and Jeepers. Then there is Red because she looks more RIR than BL. And also Stormy because it was raining when he hatched out.

 

[salsan20]

Sounds silly but is she able to get out, I would expect to see a beak rather than a toe. Search for sally sunshines assisted hatches and read it carefully, if she is in the wrong position he may not be able to get out even when heathly. I have assisted hatches and I havd let them be and both times it has been wrong or right depending on the chick, some have been strong that were just upside down etc, another time I got him out and he only had half a beak so I had to cull.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

Thanks, yeah I read the article a couple times when the first two seemed to take forever from pip to zip, over 24 hrs. On this one there is still one obvious blood vessel. I am hesitant to assist anymore, until that vessel clears up more. I just checked and remoistened the membrane. Still lots of movement. Humidity is at 69% and temp 100*f. I am just concerned that the chick may still not survive long enough to hatch, even an assisted hatch. I am going to go back and reread it again though, just in case.

 

[salsan20]

I would want to know where his beak was and make sure he could breath as a priority, if you could get a photo some wise person may be able to assist more! Goodluck. I also could be wrong, but if he cant pip I dont think the blood vessels will recede as I think its to do with his breathing that stops it. You may have to artificially pip for him if his beak is in the wrong place, hopefully a clever person will come and help.

 

[wornoutmomto3]

I would want to know where his beak was and make sure he could breath as a priority, if you could get a photo some wise person may be able to assist more! Goodluck. I also could be wrong, but if he cant pip I dont think the blood vessels will recede as I think its to do with his breathing that stops it. You may have to artificially pip for him if his beak is in the wrong place, hopefully a clever person will come and help.

I took a picture that last time I moistened the membrane. After rereading Sally Sunshines article on assisted hatches and reviewing malpostions I think what I thought was a toe might actually be the umbilical. Does that mean the chick is upside down? :/

 

[salsan20]

Copied and pasted the bit I suspect is relevant to you, worth opening the thread. Its hard to see on a photo, but I would expect to see lumpy down around chicks head, maybe an eye or a beak whereas that doesnt look quite right to me. Look at the suspected malpositions, figure out where you think his beak is!

Assisting CHICkS that you SUSPECT Malposition

THIS is by FAR THE WORST SENARIO and SO HARD to Distinguish between Not ready to hatch and malpositioned! If you suspect you have a malpositioned chick (the egg is overdue for hatching) and HAS GONE PAST day 21 and the hatch of everyone else…. you can open air sac, (DO NOT OPEN BELOW AIR CELL LINE!) follow the instructions above on opening the air cell CREATING an EXTERNAL PIP. BUT FIRST Study the common malpositions as pictured in this article so you are familiar with its anatomy!….

Normal hatching position and the six recognised malpositions:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...-hatchery-practice-examining-the-hatch-debris

 

After carefully removing air cell end, wet a finger and feel and look for the beak through the membrane. IF there is A LOT of fluid under the membrane you may have a wet/mushy chick or one that simply isn’t ready yet, place them back in the incubator and wait! DO NOT OPEN THE INNER MEMBRANE! If a lot of fluid is NOT present, look for its big round eye, or beak, or even wing to help you find its head. JUST LOOK AND FEEL THROUGH THE MEMBRANE AT THIS POINT DO NOT OPEN IT!

 

If you find its beak/eye/wing take your tweezers and create a small hole in the inner membrane AVOIDING ANY BLOOD VESSELS! Depending on position you may need a larger hole, just AVOID vessels as much as possible. You may need to gently lift/pull the head from under the wing and by gently extending it may be sufficient to allow the chick to complete hatching. (If you do hit a vessel quickly using a dry clean paper towel or gauze hold for a few seconds and bleeding will stop.)  After this stage the chick will look as though he is gasping, place in incubator & let it rest at this point. Let the chick rest until the blood vessels recede, follow instructions for assisted hatch above from this point on. WAIT WAIT WAIT! Oh and WAIT SOME MORE! AGAIN. this is the HARDEST position to get a chick to live, but at least your giving it a chance at life!

 

[salsan20]

If that is the umbilical cord I would guess malposition 2 from the link, but i havent hatched chicks before, my assisted hatches have been on quail which look slightly different and a lot smaller! I have had to assist on a lot as the post round here is dreadful so I expect higher than normal malpositions as I havent found local quail hatching eggs. I have hatched a few in this position so I know if it can be done on tiny eggs it can on chicken eggs. If you are pipping where you think the chick beak is take your time, use a damp tissue to loosely cover the air sack as he hasnt pipped there so you are less concerned about obstructing breathing as keeping it moist as you work. Score gently along the shell with tweezers or a knife until you can gently chip some shell off without breaking membrane then widen that space to look for beak and reconfirm you got the position right. Moisten the membrane with warm clean q-tip (cotton bud to us over here in uk lol) to help visibility. If you see the beak make a small flap in the membrane next to the beak (but keep flap open so not obstructed) avoiding blood vessels, I found a tiny bit of flour nearby reassures me if I do nick a bloodvessel I can dab the q-tip in flour then dap and seal the vessel if its minor, then put himback in incubator so he can get used to breathing and blood vessels can recede. Make sure when you put him back damp tissue is covering the air sac he never pipped in. Oh and dont keep him out longer than half an hour as he will get cold!