How long should the chick be breaking out of the shell?

[cakkleberrylane]

I have a chick still in his egg, he's been pecking out since yesterday. His little beak was open & closed, like he was panting. I gave him a small drink of water through the hole since his beak was exposed. He doesn't look like he's made much progress. How long should I let him work at it until I help him out?

 

[justusnak]

It can take 24 hrs or more. I would NOT give it a"drink" You could drown the baby....or it could aspirate into the lungs. If it seems like it is getting weaker...you might try to help it out...some do, some dont. Personally I do...just chipping the egg shell away some..NOT the membrane. Its a hard decision to make....to help or not to help.

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Here's detailed instructions in case you want to help it out. I think it is probably going to need some help soon. How were your temps and humidity?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9316

 

[hill-chick]

Do not be afraid to help after they have struggled awhile. Last night was my first experience at hatching eggs, I assisted 3 that were having trouble, I just flaked off half of the outer egg shell leaving the membrane. This morning you could not tell them apart from the others.

 

[cakkleberrylane]

We're in Florida, temp & humidity are both in the 90's. I'll chip away at the eggshell, but when I tried it before, it started to bleed. I read the instructions you gave me the link to. THANK YOU!! Very helpful. Will keep you posted on our progress.

 

[hinkjc]

Personally, I do not help any 'stuck' chicks until the hatch is considered over...meaning everyone who could hatch successfully has already done so and is dry and fluffy and ready to be moved to the brooder. In my experience "helped chicks" do not thrive as well as chicks that hatch on their own anyway, therefore I have been moving further and further away from helping at all. Opening the bator in the middle of a hatch is asking for disaster. You are disrupting the hatch process and changing the environment which will cause more chicks to get stuck or even die in the shell. Is this the only chick due to hatch? If not, then I would leave it be and just make sure your temp/humidity is right. One chick is not worth losing an entire hatch imo. Hang in there and let us know how it goes. Good luck.

Jody

 

[Poison Ivy]

I helped one of mine hatch the last time it was so much smaller then the other one. I just took a pair of tweezers and chipped at the shell to give it a little more room. Then left it alone the next morning it was out and about and just fine. I'm glad I did because I don't think it would have been able to do it on its own. It was 1/2 the size of the black chick. But now they are both the same size and the black one is a dom X & the other one turned out to be a delaware X.

 

[fowlweatherfriends]

Personally, I do not help any 'stuck' chicks until the hatch is considered over...meaning everyone who could hatch successfully has already done so and is dry and fluffy and ready to be moved to the brooder

Well, some people here don't even get the chicks at the point where they are hatching and fluffy. Several members here listen to the chicks get weaker and weaker until there is no more sound and they loose every single chick in their shell.

If you read my post it states that choosing to intervene is a difficult choice and one that needs to be made with careful consideration. I currently have EIGHT thriving chickens with no weaknesses whatsoever because I chose to intervene. My humidity was off and I could see that the chicks were struggling.

Others have found too that it is not always weekness that causes the chicks to have trouble exiting their shell. When you have a combination of UN-natural issues such as man-made humidity and man-made thermometers, and man-made incubators with fluctuating heater elements, that those man-made things work against a hatching chick making it difficult to hatch. When those factors are involved, we, as humans, can sometimes not do things right and dry our chicks out unknowingly. In those instances, you can either listen to the cheeping get weeker and weeker until your bator is silent, or you can choose to help a bit and give the chicks a chance.

If you will read my thread on intervention you will see that it is entirely possible to open the bator and still have chicks hatch successfully. There is also another thread posted yesterday that describes a person hatching an egg that a hen left which was stone cold and the person hatched it successfully.

I think bottom line is that everyone will have different experiences with helping a hatch and bator conditions etc. If a member chooses to help I would assume that they are the ones that know the condition of the chick-if it is suffering or getting weaker. I put the how to steps out there for members that choose to help. There are so many threads of people loosing a bator full of eggs and not knowing what to do.​

 

[cakkleberrylane]

This egg was not in an incubator, it was, along with several others, abandoned by a wild hen. The eggs sat outside for who-knows-how-long because we didn't realize they were there. She hatched 7 of them all right before leaving them. I caught her and put her and the 7 chicks in a pen because we have so many predators here, it's sad to see the wild hens come each day with fewer and fewer chicks, so I try to protect all that I can.
When I found the eggs she abandoned, one had a hole in it and when I picked it up, over 100 fire ants came streaming out of the hole. I expected the chick to be dead, but he was still breathing several hours later and hatched by himself (and is doing fine). I brought the eggs inside to prevent another fire ant attack and put them under a light. Another one hatched, he was weak, but after a day seemed to be just like any other chick. This one may be having problems because of the age of the egg. Her other chicks hatched June 22 - 3 weeks ago, so this egg must be twice the normal age.
I picked him out per the instructions (thank you!!). He's very, very weak, but I have him wrapped up and warm. I found in the past, if I wrap them in my t-shirt, they do better. My computer room is very hot, so they don't get too cold or anything.
Will let everyone know how he does. Thanks again everybody!!

 

[cakkleberrylane]

Sad to say, the little guy didn't make it. I wrapped him up and kept him warm, but he just got weaker and weaker. Even though his little life was very short, I think it was comfortable.