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Do we have a total of how many chicks hatched for Easter yet?
No, people are still turning in their totals.
Well, after the nightmare that was my HAL there is a silver lining! I had to surgically extract multiple chicks who got stuck in their shells while zipping (mom has a very thick membrane-not going to hatch from her again) and two actually made it! One of the them is the cutest chick I've ever hatched...here he is...his name is Butters.
He also likes to pose for the camera
And sleep like a lawn dart
He's a large fowl splash Cochin, and truly precious to me! It took a lot of hard, delicate work to get him out, but I wanted to share one success story on an assist. Having to do that is always heartbreaking, because you know most of them won't make it (and I did lose two and the other assist is having some issues but fighting hard.)
I did a combination of a few different suggestions on this forum to get them out- I put the eggs in a warm, wet towel during transport from the incubator (hot enough to be steamy, but not too hot) made my bathroom as steamy as possible, and used Polysporin to lubricate the membranes. Then I used a pair of cuticle scissors to CAREFULLY trim the fluff that was really stuck. I soaked the easier stuck pieces in warm water with a cotton pad and they rolled off.
All of the chicks I assisted were stuck while zipping, but I still lost 2 of the 4 I had to help. It was gnarly, but so worth it!