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Well Jeremy, you asked..................I did a no-no a couple of weeks ago & helped a chick out. I was clearing out the unhatched eggs from the hatcher shelf in the incubator & heard a peep. There was a White Marans stuck in his/her shell. I couldn't believe it. It was Friday & everyone else had hatched on Monday. I gently cracked away only the top part of it's shell to about 1/2 then laid it back in the hatcher. It freed itself after that but I was afrain I did it no favor because even though it was free of the shell now it was still in it's fetal position ............totally egg shaped. All it could do was kick a foot out & spin in circles.....so sad. I kept trying to straighten the neck to no good. I ended up forming a styrofoam collar out of strips cut from an egg carton in 4 sections & taped it around it's neck to hold its neck in place. I fed it & gave it water thinking by now it had depleted it's yolk sac nutrients & laid it down in the brooder protected from all the other chicks. I went to town & came home thinking I would find it dead but it wasn't & when I removed the collar it held it's head upright by itself. I was amazed. I fed it again & gave it another drink then went to work on the legs. I ended up with it in a funnel with it's legs down the spout & sitting in a small cheeze whiz type jar. I never though it would recover but it did & I thought it would be deformed but it isn't. It is now in the brooder with everyone else & it thinks it is normal like all the rest.
Well Jeremy, you asked..................I did a no-no a couple of weeks ago & helped a chick out. I was clearing out the unhatched eggs from the hatcher shelf in the incubator & heard a peep. There was a White Marans stuck in his/her shell. I couldn't believe it. It was Friday & everyone else had hatched on Monday. I gently cracked away only the top part of it's shell to about 1/2 then laid it back in the hatcher. It freed itself after that but I was afrain I did it no favor because even though it was free of the shell now it was still in it's fetal position ............totally egg shaped. All it could do was kick a foot out & spin in circles.....so sad. I kept trying to straighten the neck to no good. I ended up forming a styrofoam collar out of strips cut from an egg carton in 4 sections & taped it around it's neck to hold its neck in place. I fed it & gave it water thinking by now it had depleted it's yolk sac nutrients & laid it down in the brooder protected from all the other chicks. I went to town & came home thinking I would find it dead but it wasn't & when I removed the collar it held it's head upright by itself. I was amazed. I fed it again & gave it another drink then went to work on the legs. I ended up with it in a funnel with it's legs down the spout & sitting in a small cheeze whiz type jar. I never though it would recover but it did & I thought it would be deformed but it isn't. It is now in the brooder with everyone else & it thinks it is normal like all the rest.
