Mama abandoned eggs in the process of hatching

[jbeal9]

One of our hens hatched 3 babies and when they were about 24 hours old she left the nest with them. When we looked at the remaining eggs, 3 were in the process of hatching. One actually looks like the egg was broken and it died after about 18 hours. One completed the hatch and one had broken through the egg a bit but still had a long way to go. We brought the fully hatched chick and the partially hatched egg in the house. Both still alive this morning but I noticed worms (maggots?)

crawling out the opening of the partially hatched egg. Do I need to get the little guy out of there or is this not a big deal?

 

[ChooksChick]

Yow! If the eggs have anyone left alive, get them in the house and in a plastic container with jars of hot water around it and a heating pad under it. They'll die if they get too cold, and the humidity should be as high as you can get it. The temp should be about 100F.

I dunno about the worms- is that one alive?

 

[ChooksChick]

If you wet any showing membrane with a wet finger, you can see the veining that surrounds the chick until the yolk is absorbed. As long as there is blood flowing through those little capillaries, you can't hatch the egg without possibly causing it to bleed to death- and if the yolk isn't absorbed, it won't live either. I don't know how you'd deal with maggots on a living chick in the shell- but it's not the norm!

 

[jbeal9]

There actually were quite a few eggs left. I will try the container trick. Hope it works! Yes, the egg with maggots is still chirping and moving. When we went to the chicken house the flies were all over that poor little chick who's shell had been crushed. I guess the flies laid eggs in there and since the egg that had just started hatching had an opening in the membrane, the maggots got in there somehow. It's really yucky. I'm afraid to just leave it alone but afraid to hurray the process too.

 

[ChooksChick]

You can pick away a little bit of the shell, but don't tear the membrane- you're separating the shell from the membrane, eaving the chick wrapped as it is- then wet it liberally without getting any water inside- just with a wet finger. If the blood vessels are apparent AT ALL, you can't help at all. If not, you can chip away a bit and help, but try to keep it in a heated environment and try to do as little as possible. If it's in a warm, humid environment, it can take up to 36 hours to complete a hatch without harm for some chicks. Others die trying, but it's normal to lose some. Not fun, but normal. You risk it by helping, and you feel bad if they don't succeed and you failed to help. The best you can do is give it a good warm, humid place to try to succeed.

Good luck!

 

[FeatheredObsessions]

Oh how sad. I hope that you can save them or some at least.

 

[jbeal9]

The little guy is really working hard to get out so he must be in good health. The other chick that hatched late has been encouraging him. Very cute!

I moved the other eggs to a makeshift incubator. I candled some. one or two look to be about 10 days developed. Others are very full. So far, I haven't detected any movement so it may be too late. Probably the coldest they got was 85*. I don't know how long Mama was off the nest before we discovered them. Brought them in the house and put eggs and chicks in a brooder at 92* overnight. How long should I wait to see if they are viable and will hatch?

 

[ChooksChick]

Try to get that temp up to 100 at the middle-of-the-egg height- 92 is too cold and you might lose the ones in the eggs that may still hatch. I've had eggs that got abandoned take 2 days more to hatch, and unless you're sure all of the eggs were put into the nest at the same time, you may have staggered development due to the start date being different.

If you can see movement in the 10-day eggs, try to incubate them. If you can't keep the humidity up, you can occasionally mist them so they don't become glued. I'd give a couple of days. Watch the wormy chick for gluing- you can drip water in the crack/hole if you can see that you aren't getting it near the nose- aspirating water will kill a chick in no time!

Hope it works out soon!

 

[lemurchaser]

I would open up the one with maggot and pick all the maggots out, they will eat the baby chick alive otherwise.

They need to be at around 99-100 to even have a hope of hatching out. You can likely add any hatched chicks to underneath the momma tonight once she's settled in for the night.

 

[jbeal9]

It's a chick! He finally got serious and worked his little foot out and it was easy after that. I didn't see anymore worms inside after he came out so we must have gotten all of them. We can really put them under the mama tonight? I never thought of that. I thought she might kill them, not realizing they're hers. The incubator so far is right at 100* and the jars of water are doing the trick for humidity. Do I need to turn them or lay them a certain way?