Please help!!!!!...i am an idiot and opened an egg!!*PIC*

[Hens_And_Chicks]

I think we all feel bad for you and with you.

Most of us have done the same thing or made beginner mistakes too. No need to make anyone feel bad.

We all learn by doing.

 

[TheNewMrsEvans]

Oh I'm sorry he wasn't healthy enough to make it out

Hope you have more fuzzy butts to cuddle so you don't have to think about it anymore...you did all you could...

p.s. hope you got some sleep...maybe you'll need a happy nappy this afternoon

 

[horsejody]

What is worse? Opening an egg and finding a live deformed chick that would have died anyway or waiting too long only to discover a dead chick that could have used the help? Sometimes you are darned if you do and darned if you don't.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
right..it IS a very hard choice...like righ now...i have some Wellies that are like 2 days over..and just keep wondering if they are still alive and if they need help...UGH!

thats what i was doing last night..candeling them and checking...then after this happend i stopped...

 

[farmergal]

so sorry to hear that redhen! I agree with whoever said you're darned if you do and darned if you don't. if that chickie was really meant to hatch I doubt that you removing the shell would have hurt him. with one of my chicks, I had to remove the entire shell plus the membrane... his head was glued to his neck with dried membrane and he never would have made it without my help. and I waited at least 36 hours for him to hatch on his own after he made a big hole in the egg. so -- some of them have the life to get out of the shell (even to wait that long for help) and some of them don't... there's nothing you can do about it... but follow your conscience, and learn as you go.
it always amazes me how tragic the death of a chick feels. we don't even know them yet, they don't even have personalities or names, but it still really hurts!! hugs to you!!!

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

What is worse? Opening an egg and finding a live deformed chick that would have died anyway or waiting too long only to discover a dead chick that could have used the help? Sometimes you are darned if you do and darned if you don't.

I don't help. I cannot get around the "survival of the fittest" thing. I keep telling myself that if they were not strong enough to do it on their own, then maybe by "saving" them I am actually weakening the bloodline. Maybe that weak, saved chick will then have other chicks that cannot hatch without help. Ditto their chicks until a few years down the line I have created a whole coop full of hens whose chicks cannot hatch without help. At least that's what I keep telling myself. But it's hard!

However, when it is some rare breed that eggs are really, really hard to find, then, yeah...I do think I'd try. But only until I got enough hens breeding and then I'd go back to not helping, all the while hoping I hadn't already weakened the genetic line with chicks that needed my help to hatch. I keep remembering how ALL chickens used to go broody and raise their own chicks until we humans got involved. I don't want to be guilty of creating that kind of a problem with hatching too.

Maybe I think too much.

Rusty​

 

[AngieChick]

Oh Red, I am so sorry this happened. You didn't do anything different then many people have or would do. It's so hard to watch a little being struggle and not do anything about it, what you did you did out of love and compassion. You should feel no shame in that.

This is such a learning process for us newbies. Try to go easy on yourself.

 

[redhen]

thank you all so much..i read this to my hubby and he was like..wow..they are really nice! what we were so upset about was we saw him moving..he was alive..his little beak opened and closed and everything!....then we were wondering if it suffered...UGH! you know...all those thoughts...

but, we have accepted what we did now...its a lesson learned..just hurts a bit still..

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

So sorry for your lose...I had a similar circumstance a few months back...I helped but in my case it was just a case of the egg membrane being way to dry. I had to help it totally out from a pip. I left it be for FOUR days and I thought it was dead but as I picked it up to check it and toss it out It peeped at me. I HAD to help it out. After living in there for four days after it's hatch date and to still be alive...I just had to. Usually I don't though. Here is my thread if you want to read it. This was my very first attempt at helping a chick out and It was well worth it

The second thread is the chick older

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=104132

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=133547

 

[Chicken Woman]

I would hope that no one would yell at you or be mean. Critisism can be given in a kind manner as well.
We are all on this site to learn,and share the love of chickens with one another.
I have made some very good friends on this site.

Anytime I see someone being nasty or hateful I usually speak up and then am not liked !

Oh well ! We are not here to be rude and nasty. Even if we disagree we can do it in a kind way.

Redhen I had the same thing happen on my first hatch and the chick I helped I had to cull !

I was so upset but it lived and was deformed pretty bad. I have pledged to myself that i won't interfer but let the chickies hatch that can and leave the rest alone.
That is what works best for me.

Just move on and use this as a learning experience that you can use and share with others.