The 6th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!

[AmyLynn2374]

Make sure the membrane hasn't dried, you can rub some distilled water on it if it dries out. You may want to wait a bit longer just in case the yolk hasn't been absorbed, just make sure the membrane is wet enough and isn't sticking the chick in the shell so it can't turn. If you do intervene, so it ever-so-slowly, peel a teeny bit of shell (tweezers work well for this) , wet the membrane with distilled water (or I've heard people have used bacitracin? Neosporin? I think) put it back in the incubator and wait. Do this in many stages. After a bit a help, the chick may be able to get out on it's own.

I helped a chick out on my first hatch, and that gave me too much confidence, so I helped another one out on my second hatch, which also went fine, but on the third one, which had started zipping, then stopped for about 24 hours, the yolk hadn't been absorbed. I tried putting it back in when I discovered this, but I'd taken off too much shell at that point, and it was scrambling to get out, and broke the yolk. I felt terrible. It's not always "yes do this" or "no, never do that" .

sidenote:This may not always be the case for malpositioned chicks, but the two I did help out ended up having problems (one had leg issues and the other was always about the half the size of it's hatchmates), and both died after a short time.

There is a great article about assisted hatching: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/step-by-step-guide-to-assisted-hatching

I admit, I did not follow the instructions, and went too fast.

I think that's something a lot of people don't understand. (HIghlighted your comment in red.) Someone will do something and it didn't work for them, (or maybe they didn't do it right to begin with) and then they become staunch "never do this, no matter what" people when sometimes that is exactly what should be done. Alot of people (and no disrespect to anyone) get stuck in their own personal experiences and can not/do not have an open to mind to how someone else does something. Instead of posting from an "in my experience" point of view they post from an absolutely [yes/no] and sometimes are pretty gruff and condescending about it. It's great to have different points of views and different methods on how to, but I cringe when I see someone post from a no-leeway attitude and use the terms 'you should never' or 'it's certain to'..... nothings certain, and tehre are situations where the you should never becomes the exception and you should becomes a in your case, you shouldn't.

My last hatch I had a very malepositioned chick who was really in a bad postion in her shell. She could not have made any progress no matter because of her position. After 18 hours I widened the hole to see what was going on and when I realized the problem I started my assisted hatch. Very little help, moist membrane replace in bator to rest and give her a chance to make progress. It was a long process and I repeated this about 4 times before she had enough give on the egg shell that she could reposition herself and eventually she finished the hatch herself. She's now a beautiful almost 4 month old pullet. Perfectly healthy, she's my overly eager cockerels object of lust as well. So there is a time and way to help, it's just being able to figure out the when and how that's the problem. Same hatch I had an nn stuck in the shell. Did the same process. (It was shrink wrapped.) It was lively and seemed to be well, but was having severe pasty butt. I used sav a chick, tried the apple vinegar water, to know avail and about a week later it really started to take a turn in the opposite direction and at about 9 days it died. So no matter what help I gave that one, it wasn't ment to be, there were bigger issues that I couldn't fix.

That's a great assited hatch link. I probably read that three times before deciding to help...lol

 

[Math]

Thank you. No pips and no peeping here yet. Just waiting. Maybe something after church.

Oh yeah, I'm only on day 19...a way to go yet.
I'm going to be alright.

Everybody have a great Sunday. Enjoy.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Well, I did intervene.  It definitely had dried membrane shrink wrapping the head & a wing. However, it also still had some un-absorbed yolk.  I don't know how much yolk there is in there to be absorbed, but it was an amount bigger than a pea but smaller than a grape (more like 2 or 3 peas together).  One leg looks questionable, however it just hatched, so I'll see what it looks like after it has had time to dry off a bit.

Everyone has posted a ton of awesome help already. There is not much I can add other than to just expect the chick to sleep pretty much non stop for a day plus. I had 2 assists in my latest clutch that bounced back fast, but this is not usually the norm. (Honestly I was surprised my breech baby kicked free and survived after I untangled him) Every assist is different, and once you end up having to do a bunch you will get a time frame and a system that works for you. I take off more shell than most, but I wait up to 2 days before I assist unless there is a huge malposition, since I

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Everyone has posted a ton of awesome help already. There is not much I can add other than to just expect the chick to sleep pretty much non stop for a day plus. I had 2 assists in my latest clutch that bounced back fast, but this is not usually the norm. (Honestly I was surprised my breech baby kicked free and survived after I untangled him) Every assist is different, and once you end up having to do a bunch you will get a time frame and a system that works for you. I take off more shell than most, but I wait up to 2 days before I assist unless there is a huge malposition, since I

(Struggling with my tablet today lol!) ...since I want the weakest to self cull as opposed to watching them die later. This, however, is just me, and may not be a good option for very valuable stock. Good luck on your assisted baby!!

 

[blackgoat]

Well, I WAS going to set some of my very own BYM eggs for this HAL, but I had 4 hens go broody all at once. They have been cooped in the coop for 2 weeks because of snow, maybe that had something to do with it. But they all want to sit on the same nest! So far, they have been taking turns. Yesterday, I moved half of the eggs to another nest, because one hen was trying to sit on the nest, and another wasn't letting her, and one of hens immediately hopped on them, but, today, the eggs were gone! Could she have rolled them back to the original nest? Too funny!

HA HA! She did move them back! She got off the nest and I was able to check. She rolled 5 eggs from the other nest back to hers.

 

[Joshua G]

Ok for the life of me I can't remember the correct humidity for these eggs.
I'm not doing a "dry hatch" so what humidity would be right?

 

[Darnbunnies]

HA HA! She did move them back! She got off the nest and I was able to check. She rolled 5 eggs from the other nest back to hers.

Too cute. She showed you who's boss. Isn't nature fun to observe? -DB

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Ok for the life of me I can't remember the correct humidity for these eggs.
I'm not doing a "dry hatch" so what humidity would be right?

A good share of people shoot for 40-50% for the first 17 days. (Chicken eggs.)

 

[Cynthia12]

Ok for the life of me I can't remember the correct humidity for these eggs.
I'm not doing a "dry hatch" so what humidity would be right?

I do 60 to 62 percent, with a still air.

 

[Joshua G]

Ok for the life of me I can't remember the correct humidity for these eggs.

I'm not doing a "dry hatch" so what humidity would be right?

A good share of people shoot for 40-50% for  the first 17 days. (Chicken eggs.)  

Ok, thanks!