Intervention: Helping Your Chicks Hatch

[RooRidgeFarm]

Hi, I am the original poster of this thread: fowlweatherfriends. I changed emails and forgot my password and so was not able to log on again with my original ID.

I am so thrilled that this thread has helped so many little chicken lives! I went back and read all 18 pages of posts, and it seems that the information has been beneficial to many of you, and for that I am grateful!

I took a break from farm life as I got married and moved to my husbands home, and sadly no chickens were allowed. We recently bought a nice home with acreage and built a barn. I have restarted my chicken flock and we expanded to peafowl, guineas, and Nigerian Dwarf goats which we hope to breed in the future.

Recently we hatched several batches of chicks to boost my flock and had a batch that needed help-the ENTIRE batch needed help zipping, and I even pipped one myself and it lives. It boiled down to the humidity issue and an inferior incubator. The styrofoam types just simply do not regulate temp, air exchange, or humidity AS WELL AS more expensive brands. I switched to a Brinsea Eco20 and it is spot on! My suggestion to those having hatch issues is to invest a little more in a higher quality incubator if you are planning on raising chickens-it will help the hatch issues tremendously.


There have been many chicks that I have helped with zipping, many that I have hatched completely in my hand, and with the last batch, several of my kids helped using the knowledge they gained from watching me previously. I discovered that not only was my incubator not stable, but my hygrometer was waaay off.

In a perfect world, every incubator would regulate temp and humidity perfectly etc. but we are in a flawed world with varying external conditions as well as incubator issues. I am so happy to read that my advice is being used with careful thought and that there are chicken babies happily alive today because of it

.
When I have time, I may be able to upload several pictures of the step by step process to help visually.

 

[clcarpen251]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for posting this!
All my life I have heard that you NEVER help a chicken hatch... and I never have.
I have had some expensive eggs incubating for 20 days now. On day 18 one pipped (which really freaked me out)... after 24 hours he was no longer making progress and very obviously gtting weak so I decided I had to help. After reading this post, I gathered my courage and performed very careful surgery on the egg. The membrane was dry and leathery and separated from the egg. After some very careful work off and on for a few hours I managed to get one end of the egg off (he was also sticky, not sure what that was about?). There was no bleeding, etc. THANK GOD! The poor baby was so tired he just lay there, bottom half still in the egg, for over an hour before he even attempted to finish kicking his way out.
I am absolutely convinced he would have never made it out on his own. I am SO glad I ran across this post!

 

[MsBabcockFarmer]

God bless you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts! I read your thread and save my chicks life with my husband and 5 children over my shoulder watching. we will be up all night watching his progress and praying he makes it. they named him MIRACLE. is that sweet or what?ill attach his pic tomorrow. you really did a good thing posting this thread. thank you so much!

SilkieL, how is MIRACLE doing?

 

[dianneS]

I had to help a chick of mine out of the shell this morning. She had zipped last night and was becoming seriously shrink wrapped by morning. She's fine, no veins or yolk sac attached. She was certainly ready to hatch. I'm just concerned because she's lying on her back all the time and can't seem to sit upright? Do you think she'll be okay?

 

[LaynaDon95]

I have a chick that has hatched without completely absorbing his blood. There are still 2 vessels attached to his "belly button". I had been helping him on and off. He was under my cochin and her nest got rained in. He has already pipped and I thought he was drowned, but he wasn't. After his stressful morning yesterday, he was very weak, so I decided I'd help him. I saw almost no blodd and when I did see even the tiniest bit I put him back like you said. But he finished hatching himself overnight last night with 2 blood vessels still attached. He was incredibly weak at first. He couldn't even open his eyes. He just laid there, panting. Not peeping, not moving, nothing. I thought he would die. Now he's acting like a normal chick, but he has a bit of shell, yolk, and blood vessel attached to him. What do I do?
I tried putting his lower half back in the shell and wrapping him with plastic wrap so he could finish absorbing everything, but he keeps busting out. He wants to be with the other chicks in the incubator. Should I tie it off and cut it like an umbilical cord? Should I leave it? What do I do?

***Nevermind***
I just went to check on him and he is no longer attached to them. I guess he pulled himself free. He's acting normal and his "belly button" looks normal as well. Now I'm just praying for the best.

 

[City Chicken]

Hi, I am the original poster of this thread: fowlweatherfriends. I changed emails and forgot my password and so was not able to log on again with my original ID.

I am so thrilled that this thread has helped so many little chicken lives! I went back and read all 18 pages of posts, and it seems that the information has been beneficial to many of you, and for that I am grateful!

I took a break from farm life as I got married and moved to my husbands home, and sadly no chickens were allowed. We recently bought a nice home with acreage and built a barn. I have restarted my chicken flock and we expanded to peafowl, guineas, and Nigerian Dwarf goats which we hope to breed in the future.

Recently we hatched several batches of chicks to boost my flock and had a batch that needed help-the ENTIRE batch needed help zipping, and I even pipped one myself and it lives. It boiled down to the humidity issue and an inferior incubator. The styrofoam types just simply do not regulate temp, air exchange, or humidity AS WELL AS more expensive brands. I switched to a Brinsea Eco20 and it is spot on! My suggestion to those having hatch issues is to invest a little more in a higher quality incubator if you are planning on raising chickens-it will help the hatch issues tremendously.

 

There have been many chicks that I have helped with zipping, many that I have hatched completely in my hand, and with the last batch, several of my kids helped using the knowledge they gained from watching me previously. I discovered that not only was my incubator not stable, but my hygrometer was waaay off.

In a perfect world, every incubator would regulate temp and humidity perfectly etc. but we are in a flawed world with varying external conditions as well as incubator issues. I am so happy to read that my advice is being used with careful thought and that there are chicken babies happily alive today because of it .
When I have time, I may be able to upload several pictures of the step by step process to help visually.

I'm about to go in and help two who have dried. When I went to bed the humidity was at 70-80% now it's at 50 they have dried....
But I have 15 who haven't even pipped. All developing well before.... Candled at 14 days.
We are on day 22 now. I had very consistent temp and humidity for the incubation... Maybe the best ever.
You said you pipped one....
Cn you tell me about that? Last hatch I disposed of ten who didn't even pip... I would like to not have to do that!!!
Out of 27 eggs so far ten are out, two are. Stuck and 15 haven't pipped.
I'd appreciate any suggestions!

 

[RooRidgeFarm]

Hi,
I haven't been able to be online much as my house is filled with chicks-chicks in four brooders, and 2 incubators full.

City Chick, here is what I do to pip a chick in a completely solid shell.

1. Make sure you have your date of hatch correct (which you did)

2. Quickly candle the egg in question. You are looking for the air pocket, and double checking that the chick developed fully. You should only see a dark mass with an air cell at this point. Also, you are making sure the air cell is on the fat end of the egg, thereby giving you a good visual for where you are going to manually 'pip' the egg.

3. Mark the location in the air cell area with a pencil where you are going to manually pip.

4. VERY IMPORTANT: Put the egg to your ear and lightly tap on the shell with your FINGERNAIL only to listen for any signs of life. I have been able to hear some movement somewhat and also a chick that is ready to come out will typically peep at you. Listening to the egg will give you 'possible' opportunity to judge if you have a live chick vs dead chick-this is not foolproof, but I have found it fairly accurate.

5. I use the handle end of a household butterknife as it is not sharp and has some weight to it but not too much weight.

6. Firmly make one good tap to your marked aircell area. Your goal is to give you some breakage to the shell in order to remove the shell without destroying the membranes.

 

[RooRidgeFarm]

Continued.....

7. After the tap makes a pip and you have tweezered away some of the shell, you will have to decide to create an opening in the membrane or not. You have a choice to attempt to wet the membrane with a damp q-tip with the goal of allowing the chick the possibility of being able to pip out of the membrane by itself back in the incubator, OR you can look for the best location to pip the membrane manually. Pipping the membrane yourself can be tricky. You must soften the membrane first with warm water and q-tip, followed by looking closely at membrane to detect any prominent blood vessels visible before attempting a membrane pip.

8. After doing a manual membrane pip, you can usually determine if the chick is dead or alive. If alive, I typically will work the membrane and shell removal per my detailed hatching help instructions. If I had determined the chick died I will sometimes perform a necropcy of sorts to see if I can determime day of death or cause etc.

And here is a very important note that I should add about the general helping a chick hatch info...
**What I have discoverd is that there are THREE layer to the egg.
1. Shell layer
2. The middle membrane layer which is usually the one that shows the drynessthat looks like white paper.
3. A third and most inner membrane which is flexible, gooey looking, and stretchy.

When you help hatch, I have come across chicks that need help out of the innermost 'stretchy' membrane. I only intervene there when the chick is lively, been pipped for several hours, and I know that the blood vessels have had time to dry up.

 

[RooRidgeFarm]

PS lol
To create the hole manually in the membrane you will need a SHARP pair of tweezers, OR some tiny medical or haircutting scissors (all sterilized). Lightly pinch (for tweezers) or make a TINY snip (with scissors).

Another sidenote: The object of helping hatch chicks is for me, to get them access to air, and zip them enough to have some breathing room. Once they have a good air opening, you will usually be able to not have to rush the zipping process. I have completely zipped a chick, left it in its membrane (pipped membrane) and kept it moist in the incubator until it has regrouped and gathered enough strength to finish by itself. So air and a bit of mobility and your chicks have a huge chance.

 

[GasMenagerie]

Just wanted to add my thanks for this. I'm a newb at the bater thing and when one little guy was pipping and peeping out his pea sized hole for 12 hours I started to fret. I've just now pipped a zip from the hole as instructed here and I put him back in the bater on a moist cloth. My fingers are crossed and I am hopeful.

I am not breeding...just want some beautiful egg birds. If I were going to breed, I would most likely not perpetuate the poor-hatching genetics, though. That makes sense.