Help We are a little stuck!

[firerunner]

unfortunately I do no think this little guy is going to make it.

When he finally hatched out..it smelled..rotten (he was about 4 days past the expected hatch date)

Is that rotten smell normal?

We just went in to do morning chores and He is barely moving his breathing is labored and the momma is paying no attention to him.

So my questions...

She still has three eggs she is sitting on, (she had 6) the first two peeps hatched sunday and tuesday (expected hatch date tuesday) and then the third one as you read..today.

She is still sitting on the remaining eggs.

Should I let her?

Or these viable chicks?

Should I do anything?

I do have two beautiful baby chicks, one is yellow and the other is completely black. I named them salt and pepper...


so help on my questions please

 

[Orca5094]

Can you candle those remaining 3 eggs and see if there's any movement inside? Seems unlikely that they are still viable this late in the game, but it's possible. If they have died then you should probably remove them from the nest so she can get on with her life and raising her new little peepers (but maybe wait a bit so she doesn't leave the newest guy just yet, it still needs her body heat and time to rest after hatching).

As for the one that just hatched, it's not normal for them to smell rotten. That could indicate a yolk sac infection going on inside the bird, or maybe it was just the waste material left in the egg that was smelly? Is the chick itself smelly still? They do take awhile to fluff up and become active after hatching, they tend to rest for many hours since it's such a big task hatching out for them.

 

[firerunner]

Unfortunately that little, struggling to hatch, peep, passed away shortly after getting out of the egg. The 3 remaining eggs were removed today.

Cuddles however is a very happy momma with her two peeps named Salt and Pepper...here is a pic

she is very happy and VERY protective -- loike GODZILLA momma!!


So in the end out of 7 eggs we got two babies..I am happy and she is happy so it is all good..:

 

[PD-Riverman]

Ok we are pretty new at this also. We watched her yesterday poking at the egg like she was trying to get him out we didn't know she should not be doing that (not like we can stop her eh??)

She really is a good mom LOL she is GODZILLA mom when you try to see the new peeps. We are going to go out and just moisten the membrane a little and see if that help.

Congratulation On your hatch. Just some info here to try and help in your future hatches. Don't tilt, lift or remove eggs from under the hen the last 3 days---It affects the moisture needed to hatch---can cause the eggs to dry out and the chicks not to be able to hatch. Tilting the hen to look at her eggs, chicks that are hatching early is just like opening the lid on a incubator during "Lock-Down".---"I" would not do it. I set 27 hens this season and they hatched every good egg without any help from me. Good Luck in your future hatches!

 

[firerunner]

Thanks for the infor!!! This is a learning experience and sooooo hard when it is the first hatch but next time around we will just leave the momma alone to do her things. She obviously knows what she is doing!