Help with day old baby chick!

[Heather Adams]

Hello,
Thank goodness for this site!
I incubated a dozen eggs and had six hatch but one had to be assisted as it was trapped in the membrane. The little one cannot stand or walk and just shuffled around. I am giving it water and egg yolk and was just wondering if anyone else has experience with this and is there anything else I can do?
Thank you!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There is often a reason a chick needs to be assisted, something just isn't right with it. Some just aren't meant to make it, consider it a birth defect. But that does not mean you don't try, some can make it. If it doesn't make it try to not feel too bad. It's not your fault, you did the best you could.

When I have a weak chicken like that, either a weak chick or a grown hen, you can try giving it enzymes or such. You can buy something like Nutridrench at the feed store but many people use sugar water. I use hummingbird liquid because I always have some around. Use a pipette, medicine dropper, or whatever and put a drop of the liquid on the tip of the chick's beak. It should flip its head around and drink it. Give it several of those drops. The idea is to give it something that gives it enough energy so it feels like eating and drinking on its own. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.