UPDATE: BBS Orps and Sal Fav hatch (pics pg 3)

[UrbanMama]

It's a very, very hard decision to make.

I've become an advocate of "let nature take it's course" and leave them alone. If they are meant to make it, they will.

I've assisted several hatchlings and very often they're too weak and end up dying or having to be culled (from deformities etc.) Which really rips me apart!

Also, you want the strongest, healthiest flock possible.

Now having said all that, it's totally your call. It's your chickie, your other eggs, your bator etc. But I will keep my

for you and wish you lots of luck!

 

[Guinea Goonie]

Whatever you do. Do not pull the baby all the way out of the shell. you can do this.

Leave them in the bottom of the shell. They may still be absorbing the yolk and if you pull the embillical cord you WILL kill them.

At least this way you will know they are alive and will not die in the shell. The two you see are now running aroung my property.

 

[luvmychicknkids]

Quote:
Really glad you have some pics of them like that. I have had to do that a time or two but didn't have a good way to show it. What I did, too was wrap a damp cloth around the egg and up to the neck to keep it loist which helps them absorb the yolk, and it also keeps them still so they don't hurt themselves.

While you CAN'T know why it isn't hatching until it gets out, a lot of times there really isn't a thing wrong with the baby. I KNOW I could potentially get ripped apart for comparing baby chickens to baby humans, but here goes. My oldest son was born at 25 weeks. I was given the option of letting him die and not having the doctors save him. I chose to keep him anyway. He could have had so many problems that caused the premature birth and could have been severely disabled. He is perfect and at 11 has an almost genius IQ. Sometimes nature makes mistakes. BIG mistakes. I say try to save them and then go from there.

Whatever you do decide, good luck.

 

[farmergal]

Update: I couldn't just sit there while she died, so I hatched the chick out of the shell. I draped steaming towels (that I had poured boiling water on) around the brooder, cracked it open, reached my hand in, and the humidity actually went up a bit (judging by condensation on the glass) so I don't think I affected the other eggs too much.
My fiancee and I removed the top of the shell, like people said, but the chick was still stuck... so we kept chipping away at the shell until she was entirely out. There was no blood at all, and her yolk sac was entirely absorbed. As we worked I realized that the chick was "glued" to herself, which was why she couldn't move... her head was glued to her neck and wing with crusty dried-up membrane stuff. Even once she was entirely free of the shell she had limited movement. So I kept moistening around her head and neck and gradually got everything but her wing free. By this point, she was getting cold (despite heat lamps and warm wet washcloth), so I put her back in the bator.
Now almost all of the membrane is removed and she's lying down in the bator (with the other 4 chicks heckling her, of course, the little buggers).

We'll see if she makes it... I'm at least glad I gave her a shot... otherwise her death was certain, and now she at least has a chance! And hopefully the precautions I took (hot towels, only opened a crack) will minimize effects on the rest of the hatch.

luvmychicknkids -- I'm so glad for your son! 25 weeks -- that's an amazing, heartwarming story. I think the lesson is a good one -- if you feel like there's a chance and you're the sort of person who wouldn't forgive yourself for not taking it, well then you've got to take it!

 

[chubbydog811]

alright, so im not one who should really answer either since im so new at this...but...i had the same problem yesterday...my chick made a hole the size of a dime on 12/24, and then just stopped. it was yesterday around 4pm that i decided i didnt want to lose it (because i only one had hatched so far, the other 3 didnt have much going on still...on days 25)

anyway, if you need to open your bator, what i found worked great - so great, the temp didnt drop at all - is get a large quilt and fold it in quarters. lay it over the entire incubator (so the edges of the quilt touch the bottom of whatever you bator is on). get inside the blanket with the incubator (and a light), then as quickly as you can, open the bator, take out the egg, close the lid, and put the blanket back over for about 10 minutes...the temp barely droped one degree. the humidity was already shot, and so were the other eggs, but ya...it worked great, for if you are desperate and dont want to lose it!! hope that helps!

good luck with your chicks!


EDT: i guess i clicked post not soon enough! you already did it

 

[luvmychicknkids]

I am really glad you got the baby out!!! Sounds to me like she will be just fine now, though she may be pretty tired and weak at first...she has spent a LONG time trying to get out which does tire them. I would closely watch the other babies. With her being "glued" in it is possible some others may be, too.

Great work!!!

 

[erin0415]

I had to do the same thing a week ago with one of my chicks. She looked shrinkwrapped in her membrane. Anyway, helped her out with the assist of warm wet paper towels, and now she is doing great. I used dry incubation, and I wonder if it was too dry with the room humidity being lower from the heater. Anyway, it was a good outcome even though I had to help.

 

[farmergal]

That's exactly what mine looked like -- "shrinkwrapped." All encased in the membrane, and with her head stuck to her neck and wing, she really couldn't move much. I know some people suggest putting them back in the bator and doing it in stages, but I didn't want to risk messing up the other eggs so once I saw that she was immobile I went for all of it.

Ten hours later, she's still doing fine. I'm thinking of calling him/her "Helmet" because most of her body fluffed up, but I didn't get all of the membrane off her head, so it looks like she has really bad hat or helmet hair! It also took a while for her toes to straighten out -- longer than the other chicks, maybe because she was stuck drying out in the egg for a long time -- but it looks like they'll be normal after all.

If anyone else has a similar problem, I'd recommend lots of hot water to wet the membrane (Q-tip or paper towels) and a heat lamp because the little chick's body chills so quickly, especially when you're using lots of water... oh, and I used my fingernail to gently scrape and pull off the membrane. (Scraping it off her eye was downright scary.) NOTE: this chick had pipped for a day, then expanded the pip and sat with a large hole in the egg for 24 hours... so I figured her yolk sac was completely absorbed, and it was. There's no way she would have made it out without assistance.

I'll post pics once the babies finish hatching!

chubbydog -- good tip about the quilt, thanks! It also worked pretty well with hot wet towels draped around the brooder (and seemed to actually increase the humidity slightly!)... but it took one person to manage the towels and tip back the lid to crack it open, and another to reach through a crack in the towels and grab the egg. And an entire kettleful of hot water, lol.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Farmergal-Congratulations!!! Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. I had to laugh picturing that baby with helmet head!

So much of hatching is intuitive. The different posters all shared many ways of just dealing with things with common sense.

I have a feeling that if I keep hatching out these little guys I will end up using every one of these different methods at some time or other.

Gotta love the BYC community!

Can't wait to see pictures of your babies.

Deb

 

[bullrider]

Congrats great job keep us updated