I'm in the 'help 'em out' camp. I will always wait until I believe it's a 'do or die' situation but as so many of the problems you get at hatch are caused through human or mechanical error, rather than inherently weak chicks, I feel it is my duty to do my utmost to help the chicks live.
A perfect example....I had eggs that were being incubated at the school where I worked and then I ended up on a school trip on hatch day and had to leave the 'keep an eye' job to someone who had little experience. She saw a little condensation on the incy lid after a flurry of hatches so turned the humidity down to 20%!
One little girl had already half zipped at this stage but the membrane then shrink wrapped around her and she couldn't get out....HUMAN error.
By the time I got back from the trip, she had been stuck for hours. Long story short, over the space of another two hours, I got her out of that egg.
She ended up with a full S-bend in her neck and a completely clawed foot from being stuck in position for so long. I fitted her with a boot and spent three days massaging her neck, gently stretching it out and manipulating it from side to side and round in circles whilst also hand feeding her as she couldn't bend her head down properly.
You can see her horribly bent neck here....
But with a lot of TLC, she looked like this a week or so later....
and turned into a stunningly beautiful Buff Orpington girl who you would never have known ever had any problems.
I know it's not always a happy ending but every one that is, makes it worth the effort for the ones that aren't xxxx
A perfect example....I had eggs that were being incubated at the school where I worked and then I ended up on a school trip on hatch day and had to leave the 'keep an eye' job to someone who had little experience. She saw a little condensation on the incy lid after a flurry of hatches so turned the humidity down to 20%!
One little girl had already half zipped at this stage but the membrane then shrink wrapped around her and she couldn't get out....HUMAN error.
By the time I got back from the trip, she had been stuck for hours. Long story short, over the space of another two hours, I got her out of that egg.
She ended up with a full S-bend in her neck and a completely clawed foot from being stuck in position for so long. I fitted her with a boot and spent three days massaging her neck, gently stretching it out and manipulating it from side to side and round in circles whilst also hand feeding her as she couldn't bend her head down properly.
You can see her horribly bent neck here....
But with a lot of TLC, she looked like this a week or so later....
and turned into a stunningly beautiful Buff Orpington girl who you would never have known ever had any problems.
I know it's not always a happy ending but every one that is, makes it worth the effort for the ones that aren't xxxx
