Should I help this chick hatch or it is ok?

[yinepu]

Quote:
It's really hard to say just when the problem started.. USUALLY a hen has the perfect environment for hatching eggs.. but I have also seen some very dismal hatches by a broody hen.. not knowing exactly what happened and when.. and not knowing how good of a broody she was it's really hard to pinpoint where the problem started. I had a very good momma hen sitting on 21 eggs.. she hatched out 1. we have no idea why the others failed and i was too busy to go exploring to determine a cause.. which is why i let her set the eggs.. I had another hatch out 10 chicks.. then proceed to ignore them and not teach them to eat and drink on their own.. so we ended up losing all of them because we had assumed she was taking care of them... so now I prefer to incubate eggs because I have a better success rate than a lot of the hens

go ahead and check the others for internal pips.. normally i would say that they they should be able to hatch on their own.. but if they do have problems at least now you can decide when you should intervene

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
I'm hoping they are.. you have had a couple manage to hatch on their own.. but I hate to give false hope not knowing for sure
lets put it this way.. how much sleep have you gotten?.. if the answer is not much.. then go get a nap and let things progress on their own for a bit... you need to take care of you as well as those chicks.. and you wont do them much good if you are too tired to take care of problems when and if they arise

 

[evers310]

Quote:
One of the eggs from that 3rd nest box (the ones that stank so bad) was just full of white cheesy type stuff.. a definite bacteria infection! Another egg had a perfect little baby inside but it had never internally pipped (we think the mama got off when some of them started dying which caused that one to die.) and the 3rd one exploded on Jas as he tried to pip it for me. He was NOT a happy camper! He's gone to bed for the night and I'm debating on what to do with the ones that have internally pipped. Im really nervous about trying to use his razor knife (like Yinepu I'll probably end up slitting my wrists or something!) lol but I will if its best for them. Im starting to feel somewhat like a surgeon performing c-sections on these babies.. its like hurry up and get them out of there before they suffocate to death!! He wants me to never incubate any more eggs. I imagine I must have had the very worst case scenario my very first time actually hatching eggs! I have to admit though, Ive become obsessed with my eggs! Every ounce of me wants to see them hatch out ok! I've only slept like 3 hours in 3 days!!!

no red bull needed! i imagine its adrenaline im going on!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
One of the eggs from that 3rd nest box (the ones that stank so bad) was just full of white cheesy type stuff.. a definite bacteria infection! Another egg had a perfect little baby inside but it had never internally pipped (we think the mama got off when some of them started dying which caused that one to die.) and the 3rd one exploded on Jas as he tried to pip it for me. He was NOT a happy camper! He's gone to bed for the night and I'm debating on what to do with the ones that have internally pipped. Im really nervous about trying to use his razor knife (like Yinepu I'll probably end up slitting my wrists or something!) lol but I will if its best for them. Im starting to feel somewhat like a surgeon performing c-sections on these babies.. its like hurry up and get them out of there before they suffocate to death!! He wants me to never incubate any more eggs. I imagine I must have had the very worst case scenario my very first time actually hatching eggs! I have to admit though, Ive become obsessed with my eggs! Every ounce of me wants to see them hatch out ok! I've only slept like 3 hours in 3 days!!!

what you're doing is surgery on an egg.. so yeah...
sorry your husband ended up with a bad egg.. you can tell him i know the feeling very well.. i had about 30 go off at once when i pulled a rack out of one of the commercial hatchers.. i didnt even want to drive home since I didnt want to stink up my car!.. and yes.. it happened first thing in the morning and there were no showers at work and i had no change of clothes.. so that lovely aroma stayed with me the entire day!

 

[yinepu]

off to bed with me for a bit... i know i'll wake up eventually in the middle of the night.. always do.. so i'll check back then and see if there's any news

 

[evers310]

Quote:
I'm hoping they are.. you have had a couple manage to hatch on their own.. but I hate to give false hope not knowing for sure
lets put it this way.. how much sleep have you gotten?.. if the answer is not much.. then go get a nap and let things progress on their own for a bit... you need to take care of you as well as those chicks.. and you wont do them much good if you are too tired to take care of problems when and if they arise

I'm just worried they will pass away in their shells if I wait too long for them to internally pip.. thats all. I mean I'm so new to this- I know nothing more than someone reading all of this for the 1st time might know. I'm learning along the way.

I wish I knew for sure they would be ok until they pip externally. because at least once that happens i can see the white membrane and i know what has to be done. The 3 chicks I just helped hatch out this evening had been externally pipped since this morning. once I took em out to really look at them I realized that 2 of them had only caused the shell to crack and made no pip in the tough membrane so I pipped that for them as well so they could get oxygen. All 3 had their beaks thru the veiny membrane already though.The reason I consider pipping the ones that have internally pipped is because if they are already shrink wrapped inside I'm afraid they wont be able to stretch enough to externally pip and suffocate themselves once the oxygen runs out and die of carbon monoxide poisoning :-(.

 

[evers310]

Alright... off to candle...

Sleep well Yinepu!

 

[evers310]

Another thing I just realized tonight is that my eggs are pretty much hatching off in 3's.. kinda odd! I think tomorrow is day 4 now right?

One of my hens (a brand new mama hen!) successfully hatched off 17 chicks a month or two ago! All of them survived and she spent a full week on her nest as it took that long for the last one to hatch! She would take her babies out for a walk every now and then, taught them to eat and drink.. then she would bring them all back with her and set on the eggs again. She was an amazing mama! Then I've had other mamas lose their babies because they didnt let them eat the right things or just ran them to death. And now I have a stomper... but you should have seen that mama with all 17 babies cuddled up to her at night. She had chicks circled completely around her a few inches out all the way around because there were so many! They would ride on her back too sometimes as she took them out for walks. Truely an amazing mommy!

oh yeah... i was off to candle... LOL

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

good luck. I have been thinking about you all day. let us know tomarrow.

 

[evers310]

Quote:
awww thank you! i wonder just how many "followers" I have on this thread!

actually, i still haven't made it in there to candle... been cleaning out the brooder pen! at least my turkey chick teaches the newbies how to eat and drink for me! Thats one less task on my to-do list!

i think when this hatch is over i'm just gonna collapse!!! lets not forget i also have a very active, love-to-go-everywhere & get into everything 14 month old little girl!! im one busy bee! i dont even know how im doing this!

<-------- lil blondie in my pic over there started it all!

hey thats a pretty cute lil "signature" i think i'll use that! ive gotta set up my page and all that for this forum at some point!



YEP! looks like it worked!