Peeping Eggs in boiling water- OMG!!!

[Whimsical Farming Wife]

Above: The incubator with a now steamy window. In my desperate attempt to moisten it up, I added about another cup of water.

Above: The first 4 hatchlings. Lucky to be alive... you too could have been boiled

Above: One of 5 who are currently in the bator. As you can see, my guilt got the best of me, and I couldn't just listen to them anymore... I had to help! I steamed up the bathroom and got to work with my tweezers. I am worried about 2. I don't know if you can tell, but despite the added moisture in the incubator, this chick is quite dry. After I helped to get most of the shell off as best I could, I put them back in the bator, hoping that they would finish up. Parts of the membrane and shell are quite stuck to this chick and one other. I am not terribly confident that it will come off without further assistance.
Below: I got the shell off the back (the membrane is still stuck), and broke off the loose piece of shell at its bum. I am really worried about pulling the remaining pieces of shell and membrane off its bum.

 

[gryeyes]

Get a small bowl of very hot water, a washcloth, and a bunch of Q-Tips. By the time you get down to working on the chick, the water will be hot too hot.

Dip a Q-Tip into the water and dab it over the membrane and bits of shell to moisten them. Gently work the shell shards off the chick.

Wipe the chick with your dampened, warm washcloth.

They dab it off with a dry towel and put the chick back into the incubator to dry further and fluff up.

Congrats on your miracle chicks!!!

 

[Whimsical Farming Wife]

Yup~ They definately need some further help. I just woke up, and the ones fully removed from their shells are thriving! The one in the pic still has some membrane crusted on, but otherwise seems to be doing well (although it seems to be affected its movement slightly). The worst one still has alot of shell on its bottom end, because when I started to remove the shell, I saw some bleeding, freaked out, and stopped! I'm going to have some coffee, read up a bit more, and give it another go!

 

[Whimsical Farming Wife]

2 thriving chicks have been moved to the coop with the others, and the remaining chicks are now completely deshelled and demembraned (and rather wet from the process)! I'm going to leave them in the bator for another 3 hours or so, and then hopefully get them over to the coop for food and water! One is not looking so good. We'll see. I'll post some pics later of the progress. I am not going through this again... a humidity meter is being purchased TODAY! Next hatch starts next week

 

[Whimsical Farming Wife]

Great. This chick seems to have splayed leg. It sort of struggles to get around on its belly, but isn't able to get onto its legs at all. Its toes are quite curled. I have done the bandaid splint thing for the legs, and it is now in my 15 year old daughter's room, where she is trying to encourage it to drink and eat. We have a deal that if it doesn't eat before this evening, I will have to cull it (to be kind to the chick).
Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[TarheelBirdy]

Bless your heart. You have done a good job.

 

[mhaddon]

I think I saw a pic with something like tape making the toes stay flat somewhere on this site?? They were spread out to look like a ducks

Wow, what an amazing story!!

 

[3forfree]

You should put something on it's feet to keep the toes straight. Tape them to some poster board or something like a manila folder, make it look like swim fins

 

[bairo]

Wow is about the only word that comes to mind right now, LOL
What a great story!!!

Just FYI if there is a next time.
If you hear peeps you are probably within 72 hours of a hatch, that means dont worry about turning and get that humidity up as far as you can. I was very surprised to hear you had peeps out of the ones in the pot if they were about 10 days out. It seems you would have had a staggered hatch as well considering that the eggs were laid over a period of time.... but maybe the low temp and slow development evened things out a bit??

 

[bairo]

I went back and looked at the timing of everything from the posts. It seems as if the eggs did not start developing until you brought them into the mud room if you go by how long they were there compared to when they hatched. I can not explain the peeping though from the pot other than to guess that those 4 were on top of the bucket and getting the heat from the pile below as well as expose to warmer temp from the bucket being placed high and those eggs being the highest started to develop before the others.
Sorry to ramble, I love the science behind it and of course a good mystery