Too Early for Feb Hatch-A-Long Thread??

[FortCluck]

Yes it’s moving.

Do you see veins? Peel back the clear membrane. Tell me what happens. Try to get it's beak free and out

 

[juliasflock]

I would get a lot

Ok help me. What do I do. I opened it and it’s alive. No internal pip. Do I break this membrane?View attachment 2020710

if you have coconut oil, or even a little olive oil, you can dab it on the whit membrane to make it transparent. If the baby is still alive, and you can see the beak, you can make a very small hole by the beak, avoiding any blood vessels.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

if you have coconut oil, or even a little olive oil, you can dab it on the whit membrane to make it transparent. If the baby is still alive, and you can see the beak, you can make a very small hole by the beak, avoiding any blood vessels.

I second this! Coconut oil on the white membrane so you can see what you're doing first.

 

[juliasflock]

Ok help me. What do I do. I opened it and it’s alive. No internal pip. Do I break this membrane?View attachment 2020710

I had this exact thing happen with my last hatch. I used a q tip to moisten the membrane, located the beak and made a small hole, and put the egg back in the incubator. I ended up 12 hours later having to help it out because it started to shrink wrap. She is now a healthy beautiful pullet that just started laying.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

@BluebirdHomestead I panicked the first time I ever did an assist as well. I was fortunate that I was able to talk to my chicken guru friend through all hours of the night while I did it, lol. Since you saw some blood earlier when you barely poked it, it's likely that you're going to see heavy veining in the membrane where the chick hasn't absorbed all of the blood yet. If you see the beak, you'll be doing like @juliasflock is showing an example of, it's really hard to do though so you'll want to make sure that enough of the blood is absorbed before poking anything. A lot of assisting is just waiting, and waiting some more.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

I would get a lot

if you have coconut oil, or even a little olive oil, you can dab it on the whit membrane to make it transparent. If the baby is still alive, and you can see the beak, you can make a very small hole by the beak, avoiding any blood vessels.

Here is it with coconut oil on it

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

@BluebirdHomestead I panicked the first time I ever did an assist as well. I was fortunate that I was able to talk to my chicken guru friend through all hours of the night while I did it, lol. Since you saw some blood earlier when you barely poked it, it's likely that you're going to see heavy veining in the membrane where the chick hasn't absorbed all of the blood yet. If you see the beak, you'll be doing like @juliasflock is showing an example of, it's really hard to do though so you'll want to make sure that enough of the blood is absorbed before poking anything. A lot of assisting is just waiting, and waiting some more.

Gosh I’m so glad I have you all! It’s so weird how you can read all the articles in the world but for me I have to do something for it to stick haha. This is definitely a crash course. I truly didn’t expect the baby to be alive.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Gosh I’m so glad I have you all! It’s so weird how you can read all the articles in the world but for me I have to do something for it to stick haha. This is definitely a crash course. I truly didn’t expect the baby to be alive.

We've ALL been there! For some it's easier to just let nature take it's course and there's really nothing wrong with that either but I like to give them every opportunity when I can. I'm just telling you this to give you some peace, opening the air cell doesn't actually affect the chicks ability to hatch and if it doesn't make it, it's NOT because of anything you did. I've had chicks that I started the assist with when they weren't able to break through the internal membrane and they still finished hatching on their own, they still unzipped and everything.
Once the chick is getting oxygen you have lots of time. Since it hasn't taken it's first breaths it hasn't started to absorb the yolk sac either which means you'll have quite the wait.

 

[juliasflock]

View attachment 2020767

Here is it with coconut oil on it

Can you make out it’s beak? Look for it’s little egg tooth, it’s really hard to make out that stuff when the chick had black feathers

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Can you make out it’s beak? Look for it’s little egg tooth, it’s really hard to make out that stuff when the chick had black feathers

I can make out the eye but not the beak