MARCH Hatch-A-Long 2015: Please Read the First Post to JOIN the H-A-L

[scflock]

Did anyone here have to assist with any of the eggs they were hatching? The second batch of eggs I put in after taking part in this HAL were shipped eggs, so I was expecting some issues with them. I have 6 that made it to lockdown on Sunday and 1 with an external pip this morning on Day 22. I'm trying to keep the humidity up as much as I can since they all had much larger air sacs going into lockdown than the ones I hatched in March, but I think maybe I'm not keeping it high enough.

I'm kinda of the mind to not assist at all, for fear of causing damage & having to cull a chick because of it. But I also don't want to let a chick die that could have live perfectly healthily if I did step in to assist a little bit. I guess I'm just looking for any tips from someone that went through this recently.

You're going to get different answers from different people, but I'm in the "no assist, no cull" camp

 

[ochochicas]

i have assisted during my last two hatches. I realized (after doing a lot more reading) that the Marans eggs I have don't lose enough moisture because of the thicker coating on the shells. As a result, the chicks grow too large and can't turn around to get in position for hatching. About half of my Marans chicks pip in the center of the egg instead of the fat end. I give them 18 hours to hatch, but if they don't make progress I end up slowly removing the end of the egg so they can get their head out and free themselves. I haven't killed a chick by assisting, but I have had some die in the shell because I left them too long and they didn't make it out. Of course the ones I assist always end up being cockerels, so I'm not sure what my rational is!

 

[uzisuzuki]

You're going to get different answers from different people, but I'm in the "no assist, no cull" camp

i have assisted during my last two hatches. I realized (after doing a lot more reading) that the Marans eggs I have don't lose enough moisture because of the thicker coating on the shells. As a result, the chicks grow too large and can't turn around to get in position for hatching. About half of my Marans chicks pip in the center of the egg instead of the fat end. I give them 18 hours to hatch, but if they don't make progress I end up slowly removing the end of the egg so they can get their head out and free themselves. I haven't killed a chick by assisting, but I have had some die in the shell because I left them too long and they didn't make it out. Of course the ones I assist always end up being cockerels, so I'm not sure what my rational is!

Thank you both for your input - I greatly appreciate it! I did end up attempting to assist the 3 eggs I knew had live chicks in them. The 2 with external pips just needed a little help after 24+ hrs to get their zips started. They Incredible Hulked out on their own after that. The 3rd egg, unfortunately, didn't make it. The chick was shrink wrapped and I believe suffocated because I didn't know how to handle that (other than trying to get the membrane moist again). I was anticipating this to happen with all of the eggs since they were shipped to me in CO from GA. They lost a LOT of moisture towards the end and I just couldn't get the humidity up high enough to keep all the eggs viable.



But, I am very grateful to have 2 chicks to go with my 2 March HAL chicks. Everyone here has been incredibly helpful and I'm very thankful for that.

 

[ochochicas]

Congrats on saving the two chicks. Sometimes they just need a little help. I'm not one that can sit and watch them die in the shell. Everyone has their own way of doing things.

 

[Loc20chick]

Hi all. I just set 26 eggs to hatch around March 19.
7 of the eggs are RIR rooster over Delaware hen to get red sexlinks
19 are from my mix hens and a mix rooster.