Shrink wrapped or drowned - please tell me I didn't.

[denisebro]

I am now on my second hatching, I set 12 eggs on the first go and only three hatched, most of he eggs were infertile so I changed supplier. This time I set 12, 2 were infertile and the rest were looking good when candled before lock down. I think I have everything right until today! It is day 21, I have 6 lovely chicks, 2 pips and 2 not doing anything yet. The chicks that hatched this morning were rolling the eggs around a lot so I removed the dry ones to the brooder, then read some posts about shrink wrapping pipped chicks by opening the brooder! My humidity is about still 70-79 so I read some more and learned about drowning chicks that have not pipped if the humidity is high! I am trying to stay calm ............no it's not working .....help!

 

[monsterspaz]

Oh my goodness, that's scary. I've never hatched eggs, scared I'd do it wrong. I sure hope this turns out good!

 

[denisebro]

So do I, I think my learning is that nature does it best so I need to leave them to it and stop interfering.

 

[sayga]

I don't know about chickens, but when I lived in Tucson, I kept doves, who would lay eggs all summer in 105 degree F heat, and about 8% humidity. One baby pipped and didn't finish for a touch too long and the membrane dried to her body and she was essentially stuck. Is that what you mean by "shrink wrapped?" If that happens, if the egg is pipped enough, you'll be able to SEE that the membrane is stuck to the baby and not to the outside of the egg. A dove egg is only an inch long and I could see very clearly what happened.

I pulled that egg out of the nest and laid it on a clean towel outside (again, it was HOT outside, so no chance baby was getting too cold) and put one drop of water on my finger tip and touched where she was most stuck, very careful to err on the side of too little water rather than too much. I could see her beak so I just did my best to avoid it, to not drown her with a misplaced droplet.

I know any time a human interferes with hatching, the baby is likely to die, but I could tell she was headed for certain death if I did nothing, and slightly better odds if I "helped." So I slowly wetted her down and as she wiggled free (luckily she was highly responsive), and I peeled back little chunks of the shell or made tears in the membrane so she could push through it. When she was sitting in 3/4 of the cracked shell (the other 1/4 was removed), I knew she could finish getting loose if she was strong enough to survive. So I put her back under Daddy (dad doves sit during the day, moms at night!) and waited. It was a hard wait for me, but the next day, there was a fat baby dove with a full crop in the nest. In the end, she grew up and had babies of her own.

Hope that anecdote was helpful, and I hope your little chicklets survive!

 

[denisebro]

Good news, two pipped chicks have just hatched together and look great. Just two still to pip at the end of day 21. Thank you for the advice, it is pretty humid here so I think I was probably worrying for no good reason. Lets hope not too humid for the late comers.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us!

 

[denisebro]

It is a great site and has been so helpful.

 

[denisebro]

Me again! Okay so I now have 8 great chicks (hatched on day 21) and on day 22 two eggs in the incubator, one has a cracked shell on the side but lower than where the air pocket is, no movement or chirping, has anyone experienced this before? The other has not pipped internally which makes me think it is not going to hatch and there is not much I can do about it. is it time to surrender or is there still hope?