Help!! Were we not supposed to do this?!?!

[YoungChickenFan93]

Okay, so we have been incubating eggs, and one was due to hatch today. there was a small hole in one of the eggs and my classmates asked my teacher if we could hatch it ourselves. They elected me to do it. SO I made the hole larger, and took off some shell, peeled back some of the white membrane and basically did all the work the chick was supposed to do...there was blood, and I didn't know if there was supposed to be blood, there was a lot! Is it alright that we did this? He was "hatched" at 10:22AM. he moves a little bit, can raise his head and move his legs, but he hasn't gotten up yet. He is still attached to the chord to the egg. Is he gonna be alright? His name is Wilbur.

 

[HEChicken]

Sorry, but you should have let it hatch by itself. They usually make the small pip and then rest for awhile before completing the hatch. It can take a long time. You're right - there should not be blood. Hopefully he/she will be okay. But please, let the rest of them hatch by themselves!

 

[shakenbake]

No, that was a very, very bad idea. I've never hatched eggs myself but even if the chick can not do it on his own you are not supposed to help.

 

[Matt A NC]

Never hatch them like that. They need to hatch on their own to build up some strength in their legs. It may be ok, but it will take a day or 2 to get good legs. Then again, if it lost too much blood, it may still die.

Matt

 

[chicmom]

Oh boy, that is unfortunately not a good thing to do. Now, don't be too hard on yourself....you didn't know. But now the important thing is to keep that incubator closed so the humidity doesn't escape, and let nature handle the rest. Chicks have to have alot of humidity to hatch, so that they don't get stuck to the egg......if you've had it opened very long, you could mist a little bit of warm water in there to help boost the humidity.....

Good luck to you and the class!

Sharon

 

[The Sheriff]

Wow, sad. You may lose that chick. Where was the teacher?

 

[ADozenGirlz]

One of the REASONs we try not to assists eggs in hatching is because the blood in the membrane surrounding the chick needs to be absorbed by the chick before he hatches. Chicks don't have too much blood in their circulatory system, so losing blood he needed is part of why he is weak. Just for future reference. Your teacher should've known better than to have students interfere in nature's ordinary course of business.

I'm sure you learned lots of other interesting and useful things with your chick hatching project too!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Well, I have hatched eggs myself and have needed to help on occasion. Just like with human births, things don't always proceed along the "normal" course, but that does not mean that the baby should not be helped out in an emergency in either case. It's not true that you're "not supposed to help" but certainly in this instance there was no indication that help was at all necessary.

 

[Katy]

No, it was not a good thing to do at all. Your teacher and you students should have done better research on how a chick hatches.

 

[shakenbake]

Quote:
Well, I have hatched eggs myself and have needed to help on occasion. Just like with human births, things don't always proceed along the "normal" course, but that does not mean that the baby should not be helped out in an emergency in either case. It's not true that you're "not supposed to help" but certainly in this instance there was no indication that help was at all necessary.

Sorry... I was just posting on what I've heard on here... I'm no expert.