Traumatic hatches - need support

[rachellea]

Okay so I’ve had some traumatic hatches tonight. Long story short one of my chicks got stuck in the zipping phase ( for hours and hours) everything was unzipped and membrane turning brown/ other 2 chicks unzipped at the same time and hatched fine.

After finishing unzipping the one I realized I had went ahead and pulled it out while the other was pipped .to be fair it had pipped last night.

Long story short , I did my best , I’ve done many many hatches, never assisted. , both assisted hatches have curled toes which I’ve taped and one looks really good and the other , god knows it’s the weaker chicken and the less I do the better at this point but they’re taped .

I feel absolutely sick.
If you’ve never had a chick literally glued to the inside of a membrane, you might just not understand . I know some people will beat me down for helping but it was that or death. Please help me feel better.

 

[Tonyroo]

No reason to feel bad since you were trying to help. It serves as experience for future problems in hatching. Plus once you go through this you definitely learn and improve your judgment on when to intervene.

 

[tranquiliti]

I feel absolutely sick.
If you’ve never had a chick literally glued to the inside of a membrane, you might just not understand . I know some people will beat me down for helping but it was that or death. Please help me feel better.

Thank you for sharing.
I had my own traumatic 1st hatches this summer, starting with broody guinea hens & lately with an incubator (wrong purchase!! Lol, I knew I should’ve gone with the NR360 instead of the Brinsea mini eco w/ egg turner attachment [nearly equal price at the end]).

I wish trading thoughts on the experiences made the process less painful*… but I’m grateful for the wisdom here.


*been skipping a lot of meals, which probably just makes my ensuing decisions even worse

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I learned from a very sad situation with a shrink-wrapped chick under a broody hen that sometimes it's necessary to assist with a hatch in order to save a life. The chick became shrink-wrapped on a hot summer day while unzipping. It partially unzipped the egg, then stopped. The next day it began chirping continuously, but still made no progress on escaping its egg. I had no knowledge as to what "shrink-wrapped" meant, and so did nothing other than observe. The next day, 48 hours after it pipped, the chick finally quit chirping; it had died. I examined the egg and chick, saw how the membrane was dried and tight, and soon researched understood what happened. This occurred in 2016, and I still feel sad remembering that poor little chick I could have easily have saved, if only I had known what was wrong.

When you assisted the hatches, you had no knowledge as to what might be wrong with the chicks once they were out of their shell. All you knew is they couldn't get out on their own. In my case, there may have been something wrong with the chick that died shrink-wrapped in its shell. But I will never know, since I didn't help it out. I've helped several other shrink-wrapped chicks out of their shell since, and all have been fine. Never beat yourself up for doing the best you can to save a life. Your actions gave both chicks a chance to live, and that was the best decision you could make at that time.

 

[rachellea]

I learned from a very sad situation with a shrink-wrapped chick under a broody hen that sometimes it's necessary to assist with a hatch in order to save a life. The chick became shrink-wrapped on a hot summer day while unzipping. It partially unzipped the egg, then stopped. The next day it began chirping continuously, but still made no progress on escaping its egg. I had no knowledge as to what "shrink-wrapped" meant, and so did nothing other than observe. The next day, 48 hours after it pipped, the chick finally quit chirping; it had died. I examined the egg and chick, saw how the membrane was dried and tight, and soon researched understood what happened. This occurred in 2016, and I still feel sad remembering that poor little chick I could have easily have saved, if only I had known what was wrong.

When you assisted the hatches, you had no knowledge as to what might be wrong with the chicks once they were out of their shell. All you knew is they couldn't get out on their own. In my case, there may have been something wrong with the chick that died shrink-wrapped in its shell. But I will never know, since I didn't help it out. I've helped several other shrink-wrapped chicks out of their shell since, and all have been fine. Never beat yourself up for doing the best you can to save a life. Your actions gave both chicks a chance to live, and that was the best decision you could make at that time.

Thank you, and I’m sorry for that.
I feel glad they’re alive after reading this, even if they might have imperfect feet. I think watching the one chick trying to actually peck the one who was shrink wrapped and then give up made me really feel beside myself.

Sometimes it’s a no win. Broody hen is supposed to be the best case scenario and I read that shrink wrap almost never happens that way, so I wouldn’t have guessed that.

When people post on here keep the humidity at 65-70 or 60-65, but don’t open the incubator , it kinda seems impossible in Alabama weather when it’s been raining for a week … so when I see the incubator at 90 humidity and I’m not supposed to open it?

I am new to hatching chicks , but have hatched like 79 ( my twin went overboard for my birthday) . With no assisting they’ve all except one ,who was slow and needed vitamins been fine. , Even when the conditions weren’t ideal . I wanted 3 hatched chicks for my birthday. I love my sister but I wish she knew how much stress and heartache comes with this territory!

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I am new to hatching chicks , but have hatched like 79 ( my twin went overboard for my birthday) . With no assisting they’ve all except one ,who was slow and needed vitamins been fine. , Even when the conditions weren’t ideal . I wanted 3 hatched chicks for my birthday. I love my sister but I wish she knew how much stress and heartache comes with this territory!

That sounds exactly like something my my mother would have done, and my sister might do too. "I know you love chickens and want to hatch 3 chicks. Happy Birthday and here's the best present ever; there are 79!"

 

[rachellea]

That sounds exactly like something my my mother would have done, and my sister might do too. "I know you love chickens and want to hatch 3 chicks. Happy Birthday and here's the best present ever; there are 79!"

Literally!

I have become friends with every crazy chicken lady around giving away eggs and chickens both! It’s rewarding and annoying! Apparently she’s been for years on Etsy looking at designer chickens. So for my birthday my husband built two massive brooders and she got me 3 incubators (2 on purpose one there was a shipping mishap) and around 120 eggs all shipped on different dates. No one ever sends what they are supposed to. She’ll say she ordered 10 of one kind and they send 15? I receive the eggs , google what is 19 days from today, let them rest a day , label them, and put them in the incubator .. timing lockdowns has been a nightmare . I finally gave 1 incubator with a Few dozen eggs away and am down to this hatch and one other . Thank god,

Can’t wait to be on the full grown chicken threads !