What's your success rate with "helped" chicks?

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Oh I can get them out. Its just keeping them alive afterwards. They live for 24-48 hours, then croak.

Sounds like you are helping too early. There is that point where they will live or die in the hatch period - day 21-22. After that if they are showing signs of life, HECK YEAH help them!

 

[EricH]

Success rate for me is 50%. But death rate without help would be 98.9999%. Had a silver ameraucana fighting for OVER 4 days in the incubator. First to pip, everyone else hatched. waiting for any more to show signs, thought it was dead. 4th day he's chirping like crazy. Poor little thing, took him in the bathroom and kept him moist and carefully got him out. He's goin strong still. If, like in this case, everyone else is done, you'd have to be cruel not to help 'em out. Poor little things... It seems like the early one's always have trouble though...

 

[featherz]

Every chick I decided to help has done well, no different from any other, with the exception of one that I had to cull - and that was one that I discovered was still alive during an eggtopsy! I opened the egg at some late date to see what happened, and the chick was still alive in there somehow. It lived for four days, but at the end of four days when it would not stand or eat, I decided that was enough.
That chick had never even pipped the egg, was a sheer fluke. All the others I helped have done excellently - I don't do it for every hatch, of course, just when needed.

 

[perolane]

Every chick I've helped has done well also...it's all in the timing.

 

[lutz123]

The three I helped are fine. One was too big, the other was small but the membrane was too sticky to zip (both FBCM from the same hatch) - both easy assists...yolk attach needed to dry on one - and a guinea that was going on 3 days with a small pip and I thought was dead. He had crooked toes from the hatch taking so long but is fine. That shell was uber thick. He had also pipped at the wrong end so I wasn't sure how to help zip, but we managed. That was had a slightly pink tinge to some of the membrane, but not bleeding. Of course, they are all 3 a week old or less so time will tell, but seem very healthy.

 

[cmom]

My success rate is about 50/60%. I helped 1 on one of my hatches after it had been pipped for over 24 hrs. I had 2 that died while zipping. The one I helped was a runt. They are now 6 weeks and the runt has caught up to the rest of the chicks. The ones that died while zipping were starting to zip and I had to do an errand. When I came back after a couple of hrs they were dead and still partially zipped. I feel like if it is meant to be it will be.

 

[riftnreef]

I would say 75% success for me. I'm selective of who I help and why, and most of the time it turns out to be worth it.

 

[lutz123]

I can update mine to say that I lost one today...I think because I didn't help soon enough. It had tried to zip all the way around but couldn't get through the membrane. I wonder if the twisting in the shell breaks the yolk connection...

 

[Avalon1984]

So far our of about 20+ I had to help out I have lost 1. 10 of them are 2 weeks old, the other 10 are 2 months old and going strong.

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Wow, that's a wide range of rates! I guess a lot depends on the why, when, & how the chicks are being helped out. Some are having difficulty getting out because of their own inherent issues, and those probably won't have enough of the Right Stuff to live for long anyway. But others may truly be strong enough to survive, but other circumstances are just preventing them from breaking out of that shell. When those are helped out, they do better.

I don't do any electric incubating at home, my only experience with them is at our County Fair. For 17 days I volunteer in our Poultry Tent, and there we have an incubator & brooder, and have set eggs to hatch every day of the Fair. So I've seen a lot of chicks hatching there. We have one volunteer who is very experienced in helping chicks hatch, I'm sure she has a great success rate if I tracked those chicks she helps hatch.

A few years ago I brought home some of those chicks, including one tiny one that had to be helped out of its shell. One of my sons took a great liking to it, named it "Flea". But poor lil' Flea never grew like the others, and died a few weeks later, causing my son a lot of grief. He's known & loved other chicks & chickens of ours that have died, but Flea's death really affected him strongly, poor kid.

And now I'm raising several batches of chicks that local teachers have hatched in their classrooms from fertile eggs I supply. There was one "helped" chick in this group, and it was like Flea, not growing & then dying. That's what made me curious to start this thread.

I can see the wisdom in not helping when you have large batches of eggs to hatch. But with smaller clutches I figure it's best to first provide the optimal conditions, and then when there's a chick who will die anyway without help, go ahead and give it a chance. But tell your kids not to get too attached for a while...