"Lockdown"?

[My chickadee]

Hi Cluckerkeeper? The chicks have not advanced since this morning. One has an opening and just pokes its beak out. My daughter wants to help it out. The membrane looks white but the one next to it is smaller but not broken with a small brown speck in it.

 

[cluckerkeeper]

Rats, hard call but it's been awhile since it pipped and it's alive. Good chance it got glued in and it won't get out unless you help. Arrggg.

I know we aren't supposed to help but we are the ones who are doing this artificial incubation and I will step in and help them out.

If you do, go slow and stop at the first sign of blood. I arm myself with tweezers and a spray bottle filled with warm water. Take a little shell off bit by bit. You can usually see a big blood vein in the membrane before you hit it

If you hit blood put the chick back in the incubator for an hour or two (this could take awhile) and then start again. They can bleed to death if you go too fast.

When you get to their belly see if it looks good or if it's bloated (indicates that the yolk sack hasn't fully absorbed) If it is bloated you have a choice to stop and let it try to get out by itself or continue. They will absorb the yolk sack in a day usually but it is better if they work a little for it.

If it can't, you can finish it up. Good luck

 

[My chickadee]

Hi Cluckerkeeper! We were up until 2:30am, my 17 yr old daughter and I. We ended up assisting 3 chicks last night and one more this morning. They did need help as they were shrink wrapped inside a paper like body bag. The shell had separated from it. So we did have one who.started bleeding like you said and we held a qtip with Vaseline on it for 20 minutes. She was fine before we had to give the job back to mother nature. All the chicks are thriving. When we woke up this morning 2 more hatched! and 2 more is hatching with assistance. All we are doing is taking the shell off the top and making an opening in both casings and letting them do the rest. We have 6 in the brooder and 2 in the incubator. We haven't lost any. Thanks to you, BYC forum and the will of me and my daughter in intervene. There is still five that haven't hatched. One has a pip. These were the farthest from the heat.

I need to figure out what my next course of action is. Naptime

 

[cluckerkeeper]

That is wonderful Chickadee. It's such a hard call but it sounds like you and your daughter have it under control. 2:30 am... yes I remember but it sure feels great to see those healthy fluffy butts walking around in there isn't it? I am happy for you, good work!