SHE DID IT!!!!!!! DAY 25!!!!! (and questions)

[chicknmania]

Our Delaware hen said "chicks or bust" this summer, and this time she meant it!! Last summer she sat five weeks on air, then later another three weeks on dud eggs. We were feeling sorry for her about her bad luck this time, but decided to give her just one more week...six fine babies so far this morning!!

Now, here's my question...there was a seventh one struggling to get out. My daughter carefully peeled the shell; the baby was covered in blood, we put it with mom, and it died. There was another one peeping inside the egg too..we decided not to mess with that one and leave it with mom. It has not hatched yet. A friend of ours incubated some eggs of ours earlier this year, and also helped a chick out that was covered with blood. That one did live. So why are some covered with blood and others aren't, and what should we do about the one still in the egg, or is it too late already?

I will try to post pics later but we moved them to an elevated secure pen, which has walls on three sides and it is very dim in there. As soon as the babies started hatching, our neighbor's cat was right there, so naturally we had to move them...should we have moved them or just stayed out there and guarded her til the babies were done hatching?

 

[jenjscott]

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!! I would ordinarily say wait until done hatching to move, but with a cat around, things can happen so fast. As the babies hatch, the blood vessels that surround the membranes inside the shell, that have been doing oxygen exchange, wither and the blood stays in the chick instead of circulating in those vessels. If you help a baby out before they have time to wither, then bleeding occurs. If the bleeding is too severe, the chick bleeds to death. Leave them alone to hatch, sometimes it is 24 hours or more from pip to hatch. Mama knows best.

 

[Promiselandfarm]

You peeled it wrong. There is a post about helping a chick out of the shell. Instead of me retyping all the helpful information just do a search for it and read that as it is very informative. Glad to hear that you hen hatched out some eggs

 

[Farmer Kitty]