!!! Question - Thick gelatinous coating on chick that's hatched today

[smoothmule]

One of my Araucana/Maran cross chicks is hatching out and has this thick, mucousy, gelatinous stuff on it. It's not like the usual stuff, I know they're in a sack inside the egg and it's sort of like that but more of it and it's very thick and very sticky. It's made it's way out of the egg with it's butt still stuck to part of the shell like they do for a little bit till it separates but the butt on this chick looks bald and there is a much larger portion of the chicks butt stuck to the shell than is normal.

 

[drdoolittle]

I don't know about the stickky stuff, but I had a chick hatch on Labor Day weekend, and it's butt was bald. Maybe it's something to do with the breed?

 

[rebel yell]

sounds like the humidity was a little low, next time keep an eye on it, run it at about 50% & then on day 18 get it up to about 70%, when the 1st egg hatches it will come up to about 85% & then you should be ok.

 

[smoothmule]

I am not thinking it is. If it were a purebred Araucana chicks I might but this is a maran cross so I wouldn't expect that. It looks abnormal the way it's attached to the shell.

 

[smoothmule]

I've hatched out about a dozen chicks the past couple of days and this was the only one like this. I had the humidity up enough there was condensation so I took a plug out of the top. It was just a weird thing. It was like this very think, cushion of gel around the chick. None of the others were like this.