Intervention: Helping Your Chicks Hatch

[mandy4]

Thank you so much!

 

[mandy4]

Well... I did it! First I "pipped" around the shell- I got all the way around and the membrane was really hard and white so I kept moistening it. So then I left it alone for a few hours. 2hours. The chick acted like it was hardly breathing and it wasn't making any sounds..
As I was pullng at the membrane it didn't start bleeding so I kept going- then the chick started kicking and fluttering so the top came off and then I saw a bunch of blood around it- under a thin membrane lokking thing. So I put it in the bator with the shell still connected and it is flopping around a little bit.. Hopefully the baby will survive!!!

 

[angelengine]

Somerset England here. Please help. I am hatching some call ducks which have been incubating for 27 days now. I heard peeping and pipping and when it went queit I intervened with 3 eggs. They bled a small amount so I left well alone. Then one of the ducks seemed to be getting weaker so I tried again to discover it had not absorbed its yolk. I feel so guilty and it is all my fault. Is there any way I can keep him alive????? thank you xx

 

[mandy4]

I THINK YOU JUST HAVE TO TAKE THE CHANCE BECAUSE THEY WILL JUST DIE IN THE SHELL...

I GOT THE ONE OUT AND IT IS STILL DOING FINE AND ITS GROWING! AND I STILL HAVE A DUCK EGG IN THE INCUBATOR THAT HASN'T HATCHED AND ITS DAY 28

AND DON'T HEAR ANYTHING AND I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING GOING ON INSIDE WHEN I CANDLED IT.... SO I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO EITHER....

 

[tfpets]

Read the first and subsequent posts closely - Over the past three days I have gleaned enough info to use to save over 10 chicks from my bator that would have died in the shell due to humidity/membrane/positioned on side of shell issues. My own faulty incubation problems, not theirs. I used saran wrap and gauze, hours of wrapping and resettling, drying of the yolk/umbilical, an "intensive care" bator and the "critical care/hospital" bator, etc....those babies, one at a time, are NOT dead like the ones I "waited" for - who died inside the shell - because they never pipped out and suffocated. I guess you have as good a chance of killing them as you do of giving them a chance to live? The choice is yours, I prefer to be proactive, if it's going to die anyhow? Wait for them to die, as nature intended? Bators are not natural - we already messed that part up. Do what you think is best, but intervention can save some beautiful chicks.

 

[cockadoodlemom]

Just wanted to say Thank You FWF for all the information you shared here and also to the others who posted too. I have 3 babies that never would have made it if I had not followed your instructions. This was my first time ever to hatch my own so I was nervous and you and the others as well helped my dh & me save these 3.

and more

to you all for sharing your knowledge and experience.

 

[Plain_View_Farm]

Hi all, David here. First time posting but I have been reading a lot of posts here, especially this thread. I appreciate all the advice out there. (Sorry my debut here is a long one)

My wife and I have quite an assortment of chickens, ducks, Chinese Geese, Bourbon Red Turkeys, Black Spanish Turkeys and guinea's. (I think thats it)
We bought a Little Giant Incubator with a fan kit to try an hatch our own eggs.
We started out last summer trying to incubate 4 Pekin duck eggs and had 2 hatch. The other 2 never did anything so we assumed they were not fertile or something went wrong in the process.
This year my wife Ann decided to go full bore and hatch more of everything. She has had good success with the turkeys and the Khaki Campbell ducklings but we're having troubles with the Goose eggs. Fortunately I read this post before hatch time for the goose eggs and we had 2 that pipped but never went any further. They were moving around and peeping but not unzipping the egg. I waited 16 hours and felt I had to do something as there peeping was becoming less frequent. Nervously I followed these instructions and unzipped the shell around about three quarters of the way leaving the thick white membrane intact. I wet the membrane , loosely wrapped the eggs in a wet washcloth and put them back in the incubator. Within an hours they were out though exhausted as one would expect. That was 2 weeks ago and there growing like weeds now and as talkative as there parents when they see us.
In the second incubator, (~whisper she bought 2 more~) the Bourbon Red Turkeys all hatched out fine. A few turkey and 2 goose eggs haven't done anything and I'm about to give up that they will. I had 2 goose eggs that had the same predicament. Pipped but nothing further. After 16 hours I helped them along but the second one went badly. I hit blood nipping the shell and got scared. I put the wrapped egg back in the incubator. The next morning the gosling was still peeping slightly and moving but no progress. I felt it would surely die if I left it go as it was so I worked on the shell again. I got it open to the point where the gosling's head and wings were out but the body still in the shell. Over rest of the day it slowly worked itself out a little and I can see the umbilical cord still attached and it has the gosling's belly distended outward from pulling. When I left for work this AM it was still breathing and moving it's head slightly but thats about it.

If it is still alive when I get home is it possible to cut the umbilical and do anything further?
I hate to loose the little fellow after it has tried so hard to live.

Thanks for all Y'all do here,
David & Ann

 

[tfpets]

I am not an expert, and you should definitely follow the advice of someone with experience with goslings. I have never hatched goslings and only recently chickens.

I know what I saw on my survivors and the in the other posts here- if there is still blood there, it's bad - I believe it needs to dry out and come off on its own, but if it doesnt, it seems like it might pull its guts out if it stays attached like that and keeps pulling - I read somewhere that you should try to cut it at the egg end, not the belly end, and let it dry as best as it can? (I wrapped mine that was like that in moist gauze, and saran wrap, it stayed that way with the remainder of the shell for another half of a day. I read if there is blood - you can use Corn Starch - lots of it - unless you have the veterinary stop bleeding stuff (I had to use what I had on hand).

My hatching issues are beginners/learning curve and related to temp/humidity, but my chicks are still alive - (They are 10/11 days old now) and two of them bled - and they were ones that hatched on their own! As for how they are now, I cant tell who was helped and who hatched on their own....I hope your gosling makes it? Poor baby. Take care

 

[careybeau]

Hello! I'm new here and just incubated some eggs from my hens (we have 9 hens and 4 roos). All 6 of them hatched and I intervened with no knowledge and probably a lot of luck because I probably should have left well enough alone! They all turned out fine except for the first one who has a birth defect. I know I should put him down, but he doesn't seem unhappy. One had blood still in the egg and I gently pulled everything off ( now I'm realizing how stupid!) but he's okay. I think this is what they call "dumb luck" I didn't expect any of these eggs to hatch!There's still some more eggs that I put in the incubator so maybe we will have a few more hatch. I think I will let them get out on their own if they possibly can! The reason I jumped in was because 6 hours after the first tear, the little peeps were getting weaker. So I figured they might need some help.
This is such a helpful board--I wish I had looked here sooner!

 

[tinaack]

Thanks great info, I did this when my mother hen didnt want to sit on her hatching chick. So I put the egg into my loose fitting bra, to keep it warm cause i haven't got an incubator, I then popped it back under the mother over night, then when she refused it again in the morning it was nearly half way opened . I am glad to say the chick is 2 hours old and doing good.