Serama Drama!~ Malpositioned Serama chick externally pipped

[mcstewartchick]

This is my first hatch of Serama chicks and let me tell you, it's been an ADVENTURE.


I can share some backstory about the Serama hen that went broody and how I ended up with an incubator of 11 eggs all at different stages of development, if anyone in interested, LOL. It's definitely a "2020 kind of story"...but in the meantime, I am hoping for some advice on what I think is a mispositioned chick.

I've had a set of 10 eggs in the incubator, 3 have already hatched and been removed (last Thursday, Friday, Saturday). I candled the eggs yesterday and didn't think any of them were ready to hatch in the next day or two so I lowered the humidity to the low 40% range. Well, I was wrong...got up this morning to a chick that has externally pipped but seems malpositioned. The external pip is not along the edge of the air cell but in the center of the egg. It's a sizable hole, and the chicks beak is poking out and pecking at the air. Moreover, I am afraid that because the humidity was low for hatching stage (again, there's a whole backstory here), that there is a good chance the membrane has dried out to some degree, how much I'm not sure. Humidity now is about 62%. How long do I wait? Anything I can do to help? Any advice is appreciated!

 

[AltonaAcres]

Wait 24-48 hours. Because that chick never internally pipped (he did not pip into the air cell) you will wait twice as long to help out. Some birds in that position are fine and get out w/o help.

 

[mcstewartchick]

Wait 24-48 hours. Because that chick never internally pipped (he did not pip into the air cell) you will wait twice as long to help out. Some birds in that position are fine and get out w/o help.

Thank you! I found he had pipped this morning so I'll wait until tomorrow to re-evaluate. It's peeping and rocking the egg quite a bit, but doesn't seem to have changed position at all in about 8 hours now.

 

[AltonaAcres]

He's fine. As long as you can see his beak and hear normal peeping he isn't suffocating. The fear with malpositioned chicks is that bc they didn't pip into the air cell, if their beak moves they may suffocate. So keep a close watch on him. But don't assist or break the shell/membrane, he isn't ready and there will be blood.

 

[cooingdove]

good luck!

 

[cooingdove]

He's fine. As long as you can see his beak and hear normal peeping he isn't suffocating. The fear with malpositioned chicks is that bc they didn't pip into the air cell, if their beak moves they may suffocate. So keep a close watch on him. But don't assist or break the shell/membrane, he isn't ready and there will be blood.

theres a better post(than mine at least)

 

[mcstewartchick]

He's fine. As long as you can see his beak and hear normal peeping he isn't suffocating. The fear with malpositioned chicks is that bc they didn't pip into the air cell, if their beak moves they may suffocate. So keep a close watch on him. But don't assist or break the shell/membrane, he isn't ready and there will be blood.

Thanks again. I'm comfortable he's not suffocating, because he's peeping right into the hole, I can clearly see his beak moving. I am more concerned that the humidity was low...I hope I didn't shrink wrap him is all

 

[AltonaAcres]

If he's having trouble tomorrow just put coconut oil on the visible membrane.

 

[mcstewartchick]

If he's having trouble tomorrow just put coconut oil on the visible membrane.

Thanks so much! I'll update tomorrow

 

[mcstewartchick]

A little back story, just because it's been such a crazy adventure (for me, anyway), for whomever is interested in reading...I wish I had chronicled it from the beginning!

I bought a Genesis Hovabator in August with the intention of incubating a small set of my Serama eggs. I have two hens and a rooster.

About a week after the incubator arrived, one of my hens went broody. She began sitting on a clutch of 2 eggs, one of her own and one from the other hen. The next day, she had 3 eggs. Then I had to go out of town for a week, and my housesitter kept an eye on her and kept reporting that she was still on the nest and seemed to be doing fine.

When I came back I found her on a clutch of ELEVEN eggs! Which meant that every day she added the egg laid by the other hen to her nest. This essentially meant that she had a whole nest of eggs developing a day apart--the first ones would hatch a week+ ahead of the last egg in the nest, presuming they all hatched out.

On the recommendation of another Serama keeper, I moved the hen so I could keep a better eye on her and could perhaps intervene if she abandoned the nest after the first couple of chicks hatched.

Well, that turned out to be a mistake...I moved her and she snapped out of it. No longer broody, she abandoned the nest altogether. I waited for a few hours and she definitely showed no sign of returning so I hurriedly put the eggs in my incubator. Candling them, I could see that some eggs were well developed and others were barely started. I put the eggs in the incubator on the evening of Thursday, 10/1.

I turned the eggs by hand twice daily and kept everything steady until I saw the first pip on the afternoon of Wednesday, 10/7. I increased the humidity to 65% and the chick hatched out overnight and was waiting for us on Thursday morning! How exciting!

Friday, we got another surprise chick. I hadn't opened the incubator, still allowing "Thursday" as we called the first chick, to get fluffy and dry. I didn't even realize another chick had pipped. When we went to move Thursday to the brooder, we were surprised to find "Friday"! She was still wet and brand new. I quickly grabbed Thursday and left Friday in the incubator to dry off. Thursday spent the first night in the brooder alone but Friday joined her the next morning. Two healthy chicks, yay!

That same morning after moving our second chick to the brooder, Saturday 10/10, I opened the incubator to straighten out the remaining eggs and quickly clean up a little. Surprise! Another chick had pipped! This was starting to be a little bananas

"Saturday" hatched out on Saturday evening. The first one we got to watch from zip to finish! We're up to 3 healthy little fluffs!

Yesterday, Monday 10/12, after seeing no further action since Saturday, decided to open up the incubator to candle the remaining eggs. I removed two that weren't developing, leaving 6 eggs still in the incubator. On day ??? of gestation None looked to be imminently ready to hatch, from the candling it looked like they had a few more days.

One thing I did find was a chip out of one of the eggs. Not a crack so much as a pip, but the membrane was still intact and a tiny piece of shell missing. I candled the egg and it didn't seem to be fully developed. I planned on putting some wax over the chip and hoping for the best. I wasn't sure how it happened...maybe the other chicks bumping into the eggs and rolling them around?

Well, I was wrong apparently on both counts...this morning woke up to the sound of peeping coming from the incubator...another egg has pipped (two actually, the one with the chip from yesterday is showing some more action out of the hole which has now opened up) and another egg as well. Both seem to be malpositioned, pipping in the center of the egg and not at the air cell.

I had lowered the humidity since after candling I didn't think we had any more imminent hatchers. Now I'm concerned that the external pipping in 40% humidity might have caused some issue, but we'll see.

Anyway, that's the story, if you've made it this far! Went from a broody hen to a crazy one-by-one hatching of these tiny babes. Wish us luck for the rest of this hatch, I'm going to need it! LOL!