Hi all , I have to tell you experts this and see what you all think... I just had a hatch rate that doesn't seem too good and I am having concerns about it. 1st let me say that I started out with 30 eggs. I used my hovabator 1610 still air with egg turner for the 1st 18 days. The temp stayed between 99.5-102.00 with humidity from 25%-40%, I did my very best to keep it regulated. On day 10 I candled and discarded all the clear eggs and those that quit early, if I was unsure on some I left them. Now on day 18 I move the eggs to a LG still air without candling again. The temp stayed at 100-102 and my humidity kept reading 62% and sometimes it would read higher but never below 60%.... I had 2 cochins hatch and then 1 died, I have 3 buff orps hatch and 1 died now I realize some may die after hatch for god knows what reasons but here is what I am calling a miracle and I want to know if some of you have seen this...... on day 23 yesterday I told myself that it was time to give up on this hatch because they were done, but I wasn't in any hurry to unplug bator and move living chicks. I sat down here at the puter and started surfing when I heard chirping, well at 1st I didn't think much of it as I have 13 chicks in the brooder and those in the bator. The chirping started getting louder and sounded distressed, I check brooder and all is fine there, I check bator all is fine there with the chicks(most of them were sleeping), so I check eggs to see if I have any more pips.....I noticed 1 egg rocking really hard but it had no visable pips...so at this point the hatched chicks were already dry and ready for brooder, I take them out real fast and close the bator and get them settled in the brooder. I came back to the bator and checked the rocking egg...it wasn't rocking anymore and still no pip hole started and the chirping sounded weak now. So I did this......I went and got my tweezers, nail file, paper towels and hot water and sat down at the bator, I took the egg out and put it to my ear and I could hear this week chirp and what sounded like a struggle going on. So I put a tiny hole with the nail file into the very top of the air sac, then used my tweezers to start breaking away the shell trying not to rupture the membrane and watching for any sign of blood trying to find the beak! Here's the thing the top half of the shell is now gone and no blood in site, so I started peeling the membrane and then found the beak, still no blood so I continue. I get the mebrane off the chick and the chick was awake, started chirping louder. Alll the blood and yolk were already absorbed. I free the little barred rock chick and quickly got it back in the bator. IMO this chick fought to make a pip hole and hatch but just couldn't and I think it would have died had I not stepped in too help it. The shell was real hard, the membrane was white and the chick is now in the brooder doing real well! So am I right this is a miracle chick? I have named it miracle! I am so sorry that this is such a long post, but you all needed details.
that is a miracle!! they most of the time don't make it when you help them out of the egg. CONGRATS!!!
In a case such as this you did the rigt thing, and with ascense of blood he was more than ready to hatch. glad you helped him out, the only time i will help is in a case such as this , poor thing wold have suffocated had you not torn into the shell. good job!
Your story is great and ends well, but sometimes that just is not the case. I freed a live day 23 hatchling in the same procedure last week. There was a tiny bit of blood, but not much. This chick chirped relentlessly for 3 hours and finally died.
I worried about it being the right thing to do, I reasoned with myself saying if I don't help they will die, and if I help and they died I would feel sick but I was telling myself I was giving it a good chance. Out of 30 eggs I have 7 living babies, that's a horrible hatch rate. I unplugged the bator and checked some of the unhatched eggs, seems several quit early on and the others just died in the shell.
I'm glad your story went well. I decided to help some chicks that had pipped but not zipped at the end of my hatch as an experiment, once it became obvious they weren't going to make it on their own. There was no blood and they hatched ok, but they had problems. One looked like it had a tumor, and an umbilical cord still attached as well as curled toes and serious spraddle leg and being weak, and the other two also have problems, though one seems mostly o.k. but weak and small. But after, I realized also that even if they seemed o.k., because they had not zipped their genetic descendants may not know how to zip, and I am trying to keep a flock going over time. So I wouldn't use them for breeding, but then that can become complicated keeping track. Now I have to cull one at least and I am having a hard time rallying to do it.
