Intervention: Helping Your Chicks Hatch

[onthespot]

I helped a chick just like what you described, but it had not absorbed its yolk yet. I say wait.

 

[jesus freak]

I have a chick in a small egg and it hadnt moved its beak from where it pipped yet and its been a while so I decided to help it out and zipped around the egg for it. Know do I just wait or should I try to help it out of the whole egg and the membrane?

 

[the Pollo Loco]

Quote:
had the same thing happen to me last week, as i zipped around i saw blood so i stopped and left it to hatch on it's own...

 

[jdgrell]

Ok, just hatched a new Welsummer, chick and family doing fine thanks to info in this post.

As a first time hatcher I must say I did most everything wrong. I learned a great deal, but alas, I did many things wrong. Started with 17 eggs battled everything from poor shipping, broken thermostat to power outages to get 1 egg to pip. It zipped it's shell quite nicely and ran out of gas on the last inch. After the chick started to fade and no more progress I went in. The techniques you discussed in this first post worked perfectly. The chick was GLUED to the shell and would not have been able to hatch. I set the egg is my hand with a warm wet washcloth and proceeded to moisten it with a q-tip and pick loose the stuck shell with tweezers. Once the chick was free of the glued shell I put it pack in the incubator and spritzed the inside with a mister. The chick popped out of the egg as happy as you please. It is doing very well and I am confident it will make it.

I am sure now that at times intervention is a must. My children helped me and it was a fantastic learning experience.

Thanks again for the posts, they have absolutely saved this chick!

 

[paulmac]

Thanks very much. Some great information in these posts - really enjoying them SPAM REMOVED

 

[Cheepingchick]

Oh if only I had found this post yesterday
I knew that there was something wrong but I just didn't know how to help.
She stooped cheeping today and there was no more movement, when I opened her shell she had been gone for a while. She was def too big as there was nearly no space in the shell...
At least I will now know what to do next time, thanks for this wonderful post.

 

[shadowmonster197]

THANK YOU for taking time to write your guide you can take the credit for the survival of three chicks of mine that would never have gotton out without my helpagain thankyou

 

[cody white]

I wish I knew about this yesterday too. My chicken started hatching 3 days early and I thought I knew what to do by watching videos on youtube the week or so before. I wish I would of read this before adn then I would know what I should of done, but it's to late. I will use this when my next batch of eggs start to hatch. Thank you!

 

[LaynaDon95]

I have not fully read all the posts on this thread, but I did scan that one person helped a chick that had not absorbed the yoke, or maybe it was hatched with the yoke still out?
Anyway, I have been having a habit of helping just a tiny bit each time I check if I notice a chick is not moving along as I feel it should.
This year I did it twice with ducklings. I had them in my incubator they pipped and I tried to help, I didn't do it all at once, but in the end, I ended up helping guide the head out, with my flashlight I noticed the yoke was not absorbed. Trust me I felt like total crap and would really recommend not helping to soon.
I called a friend to find out what to do. She read me a article got online and sent me others. So it took it in my own hands with what I had read. Which is pretty much what I ended up doing.
I only pulled the baby's head out a little so I could see. I carefully tucked baby back in the shell, got a warm wet paper towel, so it was soaked but not dripping, wrapped the egg and taped it with the blue painters tape, I left a small spot over the chicks face open so it could breath, then I wrapped over the paper towel with saran wrap and taped that to hold it, I placed the duckling and egg back in the incubator.
The main key was to NOT let the yoke dry out. The wet paper towel added to the shell helped keep moisture.
Later that evening I unwrapped the duckling/egg and added a new clean towel and rewrapped. Baby talking to me all the time. I repeated this a couple times. Then finally the duckling popped its head out of the egg and had its neck stretched out. I let him be not putting it back in as this is his own way of progressing. (Now in what I read it was pretty much the same thing, Minus the saran wrap, the directions I read were to take a zip lock bag, cut a hole in the corner put egg/chick in bag slip the baby's head out of the hole so it can breath, add a wet paper towel, always warm, and seal the bag so that the baby would stay moist, my duckling was not able to do this though because his head had not been out yet on its own) So I changed the wrap and this time I tried to slip him in the bag, it worked but I preferred the saran wrap. Usually when I changed the towels I would check the progress on the yoke.
Anyway this duckling absorbed the yoke and fully hatched on its own. It needed a little help getting past the paper towel and saran wrap. He hatched in June this year. He is a White Call Duck Drake and he is a little trooper! He hatched with another white all drake brother!

On the second occasion, I helped to soon again, same issue with the yoke, I followed all the previous steps and eventually over a night the next am I went to check and the duckling was trying to finish its hatch, it spun around in the egg an tried to "zip" another part of the egg to escape! I found him and unwrapped and let him free. Unfortunately I placed him under the lamp in a small carrier and didn't give him a spot to get away from the heat and well you know.

I kicked myself for that one too. I knew better, and after all that work! He was a Black East Indy Duck.

So anyway if you find you helped to soon and the yoke is not absorbed you may try these tips and search for others experiences. I suppose it wont always work. So please try not to help to soon.

TerrasCritters, I have no idea if you will ever see this, but I have to thank you for posting this. I have a chick that looks like it's going to survive because of you. Thank you so much! I helped a chick out after 24 hours of him trying to hatch and he hadn't absorbed his yolk. He was so weak and bleeding some. I knew he was going to die. Someone referred me to this thread and I saw this post, so I wrapped him up like you said. I just went to change his paper towel before I went to bed and he was perked up, talking to me and trying to detach himself from his shell! He's not out of the woods yet, but things are looking much better for him. I went ahead and wrapped him back up because he still had some yolk to absorb and his "umbilical cord" was still attached firmly. I'll check on him in the morning and see how he's doing. Thanks again so much! If you don't respond, I'll try PM'ing you. I'm so glad you posted this!

 

[thejoyofchicks]

thank you, foulweatherfriends! i was moving my first-hatched batch (as a grown-up on my own!) to their brooder last night, and there was one egg left that i noticed had pipped and was still peeping. i figure it's better to let them be, generally, but your knowledgeable advice helped me identify this egg as one to help. the humidity had dropped and hardened his shell and dried out the membrane before mr. last-but-not-least could make it out. he was big enough, too, that he couldn't get a good kick with his legs at all. so...i was up until 2am following your instructions. got him out of his shell safely, put the heat lamp right on him, and i fell into bed ... and this morning, i can't even tell which chick he is, despite being born a day late! whichever one he is, he's doing great. thank you for sharing your chickie wisdom!