Robin412 saved my chicks life!

[Juliechickens]

Good morning everyone,,,well,,,it's finally a good morning to me.
After one of my chicks being in it's completely cracked all the around shell,,,for 24 hours,,,it was time to do something. I was too afraid to try but I checked my email first this morning and Robin had replied in telling me EXACTLY how to do this procedure. I would NOT recommend doing this unless you know for sure your chick needs your help. Robin told me step by step what to do.
My hands were shaking so bad, it's a wonder I was successful. The chick had it's beak and foot out of the egg since yesterday morning and had made no progress since then. His shell he had cracked in a complete circle all the way around, otherwise I would NOT have attempted to help him.
I placed him on a preheated heating pad and with tweezers and an eye dropper of warm water I very slowly under a nice bright light where I could see started removing small piece at a time the shell while I dropped a drop of water on the dry parts. As soon as I dropped water drops on the bottom of it's shell, it basically pushed most of the egg off itself except for the part around it's head which seemed to be the most stuck. The chick didn't seem to mind the whole process. It peeped the whole time but never in pain. There was NO blood whatsoever anywhere.
I feel certain that this chick would not have survived had I not done this. It was very dry and the membrane was stuck on him like shrinkwrap until I moistened it.
Now, the chick is back in the incubator drying and peeping, looking great so far!
I named the chick Robin of course. Hats off to Robin for saving my chicks life. Had it not been for this website of friends, I would not have attempted this.
After getting back on here, I saw that a few others have since responded with help and I just want to thank each of you. I just happend to read Robin's reply first and went with it! Thank goodness I did! All is well now and I can relax till the next one hatches I guess,,,then it will be more stress!
I have 3 healthy chicks so far.
Thank you guys for everything!!!!
Julie

 

[hinkjc]

Congrats Julie! So happy to hear it worked out well. My first experience opening a chick was with quail and let me tell you those are some small eggs to be assisting with. LOL Chicken eggs are a breeze.

It's important to remember why this happens. Most likely humidity was not appropriate for incubation and/or hatching. These are adjustments we can make in future hatches to ensure the chicks have the best chance possible to do it on their own. We've all been there, trust me...but we can always learn from our experiences.

Again, great job with the baby!

Jody

 

[robin416]

Julie, I did not save your chick. All I did was give you some of my experience, you ultimately saved it by being patient. Not jumping in too soon and causing more harm or stress to the peep is very important when it comes to helping them out of the shell.

Just so you don't feel guilty about the peep that externally pipped and died. The probability that this one would not have survived if you intervened was very high. I won't mess with one like that until at least 24 hours has passed and there are other hatched chicks in the bator. It is not uncommon to have one pip like that before it should be out in the world.

I had one pip like that two days before hatch date. I left the little bugger for 48 hours before I started to help it out, it was stuck big time. The early pipping allowed quite a bit of the membrane to dry and shrink. But its out in the coop now with its foster Momma growing rapidly.