I have one chick that I think is dead, it made a huge hole last night and I went to bed. This morning no change and its very still, has alot of yellow liquid in there. I want to check it out but am pretty sure its dead. Then theres my welsummer who hasn't made any progress since it pipped almost 24 hours ago. Im afraid it'll die too. Should I help it, or the one I think might be dead? Its so sad, its a black ameraucana.
Do you think the one could srill be alive? How can you tell? The hole is almost the top of the large end. It was like it zipped, but not enough to get out. The welsummer got moved by the other chicks and is now making progress, its been pinned between the incubator and 2 eggs.
Sometimes if you wiggle the incubator you will hear the chick chirping - well I do. If it's strong it will finish if not I wouldn't help. Good luck.
Give them a while longer. If they are not strong enough to get out they probably won't live, but there are exceptions to the rule.
As long as you are seeing movement let them be. I had to intervene on my last hatch because of a set of very thick shelled eggs for one breed. LOTS of yellow fluid is probably not a great sign for that chick. Regarding trapped egg: I hatch a Brinsea 20. In the beginning I always had plenty of space left after day 18. But I must have gotten better at controlling my humidity and temp consistently. Lately I have been culling VERY few eggs, and hatching 80% even on shipped eggs. This has created and overcrowding/space issue for the later blooming eggs. These last 2 hatches I have moved the incubator into a bathroom when I go into lockdown. When a good number of the babies have hatched, and I can't see any pipped eggs or a pip has stalled, I can start the shower and turn the whole place into a sauna for a few moments to transfer chicks/shells out and give the last few eggs some space to hatch. I know it's against the rules, but I haven't lost a chick yet this way. When I finally crack my DUD egg or 2, they are always eggs that quit a ways back. Keep sending good vibes to your BLK AM, he may surprise you yet!
I have one that appears the same. I'm not sure what all the fluid is, but I can't risk the others to go in after it. And another pipped and drew blood yesterday and is unchanged today. Two others hatched and a third is working on it already this morning, and with the two other pips I can't risk going in there. If I were you, I'd leave it be.
One of the chicks was pecking it over and over. And my humidity moved too high so i used the opportunity to pop it open and grab it. Took less than 3 seconds humdity dropped to 70% which is fine because it was getting too high. But, my little blk amer is gone. Appears to have drowned. I should have stayed up. I knew his zip didn't look right.
I helped after 29 hours of watching him struggle. I'm glad I did, he was dried to the shell. I helped enoouh, then he did the rest. But the shell was stuck to his back, so helped again by seperating the shell from the dried membrane. The membrane is still stuck there, but I didn't feel comfortable peeling it off. He has one foot curled up and one curled down. Gonna give him a while before I get too concerned.
