Using humidifier to stop drying out

[getaclue]

Late this afternoon, if the chick has not started to come out, I think I would at least take a bit more shell off (not the membrane), and see how it looks. IF the membrane is not bleeding, and/or seems semi dried out, I think I would pull the shell off about half way. If it's stuck, you can dampen it to unstick it.

 

[getaclue]

Congratulations!

 

[getaclue]

I like to add nutri drench to the waterers for a couple weeks, for the chicks. I just think they do better.

 

[wemimew]

All the chicks here are hatched by broody hens and have been for the last eight years.
It took me a couple of attempts to save partially hatched, or sickly chicks that mum deserted at the nest site, to realise that any interference on my part while seeming the right thing to do was in fact in the long term, misguided.
Hens know what they are doing. They've been doing this hatching business for a very long time. There are reasons hens abandon partially hatched and sick chicks that don't become apparent until a later date.
Briefly, the optimum hatch for a hen is when all the chicks hatch in as short a time frame as possible. Hens, by communicating with the embryos can adjust the hatch timing. This means all the chicks are at a similar level of development when she leaves the nest. This helps to minimize the advantage a chicks say 36 hours older than the rest would have in a staggered hatch for example.
My view now is if you are going to let a broody hen sit and hatch then from that point on you trust her judgment and not interfere.
I have a hen that has just hatched 3 out of 4. The 4th egg did pip, but for whatever reason the chick didn't make it out of the shell. Maybe I could have done an assisted hatch but the mother will leave this partially hatched chick without a second thought.
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My hatch was very staggered so her chicks are not with her at the moment, they hang out in a brooder in another room and visit her and have a cuddle a couple of times a day. I bought some eggs and think that they may have already been under a broody because they hatched in dat 18! I was not prepared at all for that! She is a great mother and is still sitting on the egg that isn’t hatching (I don’t have an incubator) - she hasn’t abandoned it at all and Is still chatting to it. I have put an humidifier on in the room and have a wet cotton pad under the egg so hopefully that works - it’s worth a shot anyway because the chick probably wouldn’t have gotten out of the egg anyway - it is the last egg to hatch so I am not worried about making it too humid.

 

[ValerieJ]

My hatch was very staggered so her chicks are not with her at the moment, they hang out in a brooder in another room and visit her and have a cuddle a couple of times a day. I bought some eggs and think that they may have already been under a broody because they hatched in dat 18! I was not prepared at all for that! She is a great mother and is still sitting on the egg that isn’t hatching (I don’t have an incubator) - she hasn’t abandoned it at all and Is still chatting to it. I have put an humidifier on in the room and have a wet cotton pad under the egg so hopefully that works - it’s worth a shot anyway because the chick probably wouldn’t have gotten out of the egg anyway - it is the last egg to hatch so I am not worried about making it too humid.

Why have you taken her babies away from her? Are you afraid she will abandon this one egg for them?