I like your philosophy, Ko.The smallest chick with the blue feet was one of my assisted hatches. She wouldn't have hatched on her own and was horribly stuck inside the egg, all dried out from having tried for so long. I'm so glad I saved her. She's my cuddliest, an absolute sweetheart, and perfectly healthy. I'm all for "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest", but if we leave it in nature's hands like those processes were meant to be. The moment we step in and introduce human factors, like the completely artificial process of hatching eggs in a styrofoam box after jostling them for thousands of miles on planes and trucks... well at that point everything changes, and we can't blame the chick for struggling with our interference. At that point, success depends more on us than on nature, because most of nature has been removed. So I will always try to save shipped eggs that are hatching in a human-made box. It only seems fair. Eggs that haven't flown and that are hatching under a broody can have nature and their mom figure it out.
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