Yolk Broken During Hatch?

[Pele]

So, my hatch is going depressingly badly due to my incubator. Today I thought things were looking up when one of the eggs that had been peeping all night.

I just checked on them, and the bottom of the incubator was covered in a yellow fluid. I thought that was strange, and noticed that a chick had managed to 50% zip, but seemed to be gasping for air, and had fluid all over it. I caved and helped it finish the zip, pulling the cap off. After about 15 minutes, the chick struggled out far enough for me to see what appears to be unabsorbed yolk-sack that is in bad shape. Before I could decide what to do, the chick had kicked enough to pull half off.

I'm pretty depressed about this chick's chances for survival. Thoughts? Advice? Experiences?

 

[flgardengirl]

I think your humidity is too high. I usually run mine about 55% or so during the actual hatch. I seem to have much better results.

 

[Pele]

Well we opened the incubator to get him out and wrap him in guaze so he won't step on himself, so that should lower the humidity. It's a godaweful mess in there, I'm very worried about bacteria attacking the rest of the eggs now.

Bleh, it's like the eggpocolypse.

 

[Pele]

The chick didn't make it. I won't go into details, but it progressed into an injury that made us decide to put it down for the sake of mercy. Very discouraging.

For anyone else who ever finds a chick like this, isolate it immediately. Immobilize it however you can so that it can't injure itself by kicking and trying to stand. Put it in a cup, tape it's toes to the floor, whatever you have to do to prevent kicking. If we had been able to do this right away for our chick, she probably would have made it. Lesson learned.

 

[mstricer]

Sorry, I'm working on not touching a chick, that doesn't seem to be able to turn. I think my humidity was too low during incubation, the air cells were pretty big. But if necessary I will intervene since I have a meany Araucana in there that is being mean to the other 2 chicks that hatched.