Possible hatching emergency?

[kryssa]

Hi chicken people,

I'm new to this site. I'm really looking for help. I'm incubating eggs for the first time. Everything has been more or less fine, until today. Today is day 22, some chicks hatched yesterday. I took the chicks out of the incubator and put them into the brooder. I understand I wasn't supposed to do this. They seemed really crowded and I was worried... etc. I also had the incubator under a light (so I could watch with a webcam) and it may have raised the temperature. I don't know.

Anyway, the last chick that hatched this morning had a rubbery yellow lining inside of the shell. I don't know what this was, but I did not see it with the eggs that hatched yesterday. Most of the day today I had 4 chicks that I could see breathing through holes in the shells, but they were not breaking out of the shell. I did some research and I raised the humidity way up in the incubator, but it didn't seem to help. I got worried and I interfered with the chick that was farthest along. He is out of the shell now, still in the incubator. That shell was cracked in several places, but it was not coming loose due to the thick, rubbery lining.

Was I right to help, or was my help premature and more harmful than good? What do you think? I have 3 more chicks in similar situations. Right now, I'm waiting to see the outcome for the first chick.

 

[vixie-daisy]

From what you're describing, it sounds like the chicks have become shrink wrapped with the membrane inside the shell, from the humidity dropping when you opened the incubator to take out the hatched chicks.

How is the chick you assisted doing now? Was there any blood present or unabsorbed yolk?

 

[kryssa]

From what you're describing, it sounds like the chicks have become shrink wrapped with the membrane inside the shell, from the humidity dropping when you opened the incubator to take out the hatched chicks.

How is the chick you assisted doing now? Was there any blood present or unabsorbed yolk?

Thanks for your response. I ended up assisting 4 chicks last night. One died during the night. I found that chick on its back with no obvious cause of death. Maybe it was just too weak to turn over. The other 3 chicks seem to be doing well so far. I haven't seen them eat or drink yet, but they are active and getting stronger.

No unabsorbed yolk. I cleaned a little gunk off one chick's underside this morning, but no big deal. I left the incubator on last night, and this morning it smelled terrible. There was some blood (light pink) in the water tray and also some afterbirth type tissue. I got that cleaned up, and I think we are ok now - except the one chick we lost.

I also found out that a made at least one other mistake. I had the eggs immobilized in the egg holder from the incubator. Someone else told me that if I had left the eggs loose to hatch and move around, they may have hatched faster.