I hate to start but

[Ban seabhag]

Quote:
I had never seen this page and am sure glad you posted it again. I expect I will be referring to it in future. I had to help one chick out a few days ago that had gotten shrink wrapped. She was in breech and was pressing crosswise in the shell. popped the shell off, but it exposed the membrane too much and it began to dry rapidly, even with moisture applied. I had to help remove it (slowly). Alive and lively now.
Good luck with the next hatch. It breaks the heart to lose one. I am glad to see not everyone discourages helping at some point. Nature can't afford to worry over lost chicks and gives up pretty quick. We don't have to if there's a chance.

 

[Bettacreek]

Personally, if I don't see progress after a few hours (maybe 2-4 hours?) I go in. Once I go in for one, I go in for all. Anybody who is not already out of the egg gets help. I even started going in and cracking open unpipped eggs to get these chicks out. I had a MUCH better survival rate after doing this. I was losing most of my chicks shortly after they would pip (some would only pip the aircell). They're hardier than one might think, though I think the quail chicks are easier and hardier than chook chicks.

ETA: I do this a little at a time. I don't grab an egg, crack it open and pull a chick out, that would most likely kill it. I slowly chip away the shell. Avoid making them bleed. There is a blood vessel that runs across the beak. If it's there, you can slide it over the head and pull the head out by gripping the beak and egg tooth and GENTLY pulling the chick's head out. Once the head is out, if there was this vein, put it back into the incubator and move onto the next chick. If there wasn't a vein, continue on until you find veins, then put it back and grab the next one. Once all have been done, depending on how long it has been, you may want to go through the line again, or wait an hour or so and come back. I was often doing this with quail chicks, so I had MANY eggs to do, and with them being so tiny, it was time consuming, so I could mostly just restart the line without waiting.
Oh, and, after you pop the top off, do NOT pull the chick's body out of the egg. At this point, I make sure that the membrane is not going to trap them in the egg, then leave them be to come out on their own. Sometimes I will chip the egg down, checking for veins, then pull the chick out, IF the blood in the veins have all been absorbed. Otherwise, you'll bleed the chick out through the belly button, possibly killing it.

 

[IggiMom]

It is sort of OT, but I hatched out a bunch of quail eggs last year. Someone was selling them to get to her brother's funeral, so I bought some.

Wow. It was one of the most fun things EVER.

They started hatching all at once. I called the neighbor's kids over to watch.

Then they were just popping out all over the incubator.

Funny though--after they hatched they all jumped into my little bowls of water for humidity! Just jumped right in! Only one drowned, I got all the others out, wet but ok.

THEN--when I next opened up the incubator to move them to the brooder, they all jumped out into the room and started running everyplace like a bunch of tiny fuzzy racehorses! I am not Mr. Neat, and they found lots of stuff to get under and lost in--my incubating room is also my sewing and spinning room and they were into the wool and the yarn, all over the place. I did find them all eventually, with some help from my little dogs, who greatly desired to eat them. So then of course, the trick was as soon as the dog found one to grab it before the dog did.

I think one actually got swallowed whole.

Ok, I'll shut up about the quail eggs.

 

[kk454]

In my opinion, this is a very hard decision. If it was the last egg in the incubator, and the chick has pipped, but is starting to weaken (less noise....), I am all for helping it out. You do run the risk of "shrink wrapping" other unhatched chicks if the humidity drops drastically from going into the incubator, so the pros/cons need to be weighed. Is it worth putting the rest of your hatch in danger to help a single chick that could have a genetic deficiency? Our last hatch, we chose to help several chicks out, and ended up with 8 chicks dead in shell from low humidity. Unfortunately, my wife and I learned the hard way. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[rancher hicks]

Well last check it was doing better and almost there. I can hear it in my office w/ the door closed maybe 25 feet away. Last time I was taking the chicks out as they hatched but this time I'm leaving them in the incu. I figure the stumbleing around they do will move the others around and help keep things going. That and the sound of all that peeping.

I was thinking of recording my bantam and her sounds she makes and playing it near the incu. They say if you sing to your baby in the womb they get to know your voice. Thing is, pregnant women in the mall thought I was strange when I asked to sing to their stomachs.

It's supposed to make your baby smarter. My mother never sang to any of us.

Guess that explains my stupid brother.

Anyhow I guess I'll just wait and see what happens. I don't need the chicks but I like the experience. I have eggs on order and I'd like to increase my chances. Ordered eggs are more important so I've got to be ready. I wonder if incu's are like cars you gotta get used to how they drive, know how they handle.

 

[megcpat]

You brought up something that has long puzzled me. Those last eggs get thrashed around so much by the first chicks to hatch, and it is always the most bumped and rolled about eggs that do not hatch. I'm not sure what is the best thing to do about this? Is it because they are so disturbed, or because I open the bator to remove the early hatchers? Oh, and I have helped (very sparingly) chicks who started to hatch but seem to run out of energy after about 12 hours. Never had a problem because of this.

 

[halo]

I used to help more than I do now. Im now thinking its setting a bad precedent to consistantly have to help chicks hatch. Its like the breeds of chickens and turkeys that need to be artificially inseminated because they cant do it on their own. I feel a chicks stregnth in hatching is genetic, just like every other trait, and in helping chicks hatch out, I feel I can be perpetuating a weakness that I dont think I want to do. And most times, when one has pipped and sat for several hours, even 24 hours, I will find it will hatch on its own. And if it doesnt (assuming Im having a good hatch otherwise), then I feel I must let it go. I want to raise those chicks that pop like popcorn.

 

[onthespot]

I've saved a lot more than I have killed, but I started out by killing a lot more than I saved. I think I killed the first half dozen I tried to save. Too early, bled to death. I could NOT keep my hands to myself. I did get better at intervening, but now I just try to not do it. If I know the humidity and temps have been all over the map, I am more likely to help them out. If most are doing well and a few are not, I leave them do or die. If it is a chick I REALLY WANT to hatch... okay, I help it. Next generation gets to take their chances, but when I am starting out and have only limited options, I want as wide a gene pool as I can get.

 

[evonne]

Quote:
this is my current plan of action for any hatch i do, as the last 3 i've tried to do with my own eggs have gotten me nothing.. except the one i did decide to help... i had 2 that just a week ago were do and they were chirping and rocking... one pipped, but never unzipped.. the other i opened it and it had almost no aircell to even pip into... the chick took up the ENTIRE egg...
the time before that, i thought i had a pip... and then nothing... when i opened it, the "pip" was nowhere near the beak.. it was the chicks elbow.. lol.. broke the shell trying to turn.. had i known, i would have opened it for him....

i run still air at 101.7, my first hatch that i got 6/6 hatched on day 20... so my plan for my next one is in the afternoon of day 20 to open the air cell end and check how they're all doing... if no blood vessels can be seen and the membrane is not popped i will do that and peel it back enough that they can free a wing and unwind their head... after that they're on their own.. i will watch for dried membranes and keep the humidity up...

i know a lot of people are against helping... but i've also seen a video of a hatchery where the machine pips all the eggs... and i know a lot of people that help when it's needed...

if the chicks i'd opened up had been average size compared to the eggs, i would leave them to hatch on their own... but every one has been HUGE.. my roo is a decent size, and some of my girls are pretty big, and they're all still pullets.... so i think the small egg size has something to do with it too.... the ones that did hatch on their own were leghorn/EE's... so dad is big, but mom is a little smaller... hhmmm just realized that...

anyway..... i'm rambling...

 

[IggiMom]

Quote:
Well, yes, I don't think that probably chicks who have to be helped should be bred.

I am very familiar with the world of purebred dogs (more so than I am with chickens) and one of the problems out there in purebred dogs is that many times those who could not whelp naturally are then bred, and of course perpetuate the problem.

But those chicks who are not going to be bred, I want to save all I can, and so this doesn't really apply to them.

Catherine