'Slow to hatch' egg.... smelly?

rbc-bow-chicka

Songster
11 Years
Jan 4, 2014
207
189
231
I am hatching chicks. They started hatching roughly 36 hours ago.

One was zipping.... had been zipping....for a while. I could hear him peeping and griping while everyone ran him over.

Moved the chicks to their brooder a little while ago so I could tend to him.

I chipped a little of the shell away, expecting to find a dried out membrane.... and no... he was still moist in there. No blood/vein problem.... but I noticed kind of a smell.... not a 'bad' smell.... just a little 'funky.'

So I stopped picking and wrapped him the wet paper towel i had brought with me and stuck him back in the incubator to hopefully push himself out.

So, my question is.... what is up with the funky smell? Did he poop? Does it indicate there's a problem?

Thanks.

Edited to add--

Came home several hours later. He had freed a leg, but still the majority of him was in the egg. I repeated the chipping, freed his head and rewarded him in a fresh wet towel.

An hour or so after this, he had freed himself from the bottom/egg yolk side of the shell on his own and was walking around. He was still pretty pasted up with now dried membrane and gunk across his back. I gave him somewhat of a controlled bath... him sitting on a warm wet wash cloth and me squeeze warm water over his back while loosening the membrane as much as possible. He is back in the incubator. He has some greenish/yellowish wetness down near his tail feather.... not vent.... but I am wondering if I don't have a case of yolk sac disease.
 
Last edited:
If he's still alive in there, I'd leave him alone. I don't know why there's a smell as after hatching several hundred, I've never picked one up that had a smell.

When he comes out and dries, I'd presume the smell would be gone. If it's not, then perhaps some bacteria got in there somehow and you may have to clean him up.

If that's the case, then just wash him off with damp paper towel and blow dry on low.

Congrats on the hatch!
 
Rancid or dead mouse means dead and rotting or nasty bacteria. Doritos means he’s having a snack (sorry, can’t help myself, funky smell to me is automatically nacho chips!). Yeasty or slow drain is probably a secondary yeast or bacterial overgrowth (dog ear infection or lady yeast infection), getting hatched and dried should fix that. Otherwise no idea.
 
If he's still alive in there, I'd leave him alone. I don't know why there's a smell as after hatching several hundred, I've never picked one up that had a smell.

When he comes out and dries, I'd presume the smell would be gone. If it's not, then perhaps some bacteria got in there somehow and you may have to clean him up.

If that's the case, then just wash him off with damp paper towel and blow dry on low.
There's now more to the story which had been included in the 2nd post made to the emergecy/illnesss group 3 hours or so after this one.

To update as much as i can recall without going back and forth, came home several hours later, he had freed one leg, but was still in the egg. So I repeated the chipping of the egg frees his head and left most of the rest of the shell intact for him to push. Put afresh wet towel on him.

After this new round, he had freed himself from the bottom/egg yolk side of the shell on his own and was walking around. He was still pretty pasted up with now dried membrane and gunk across his back. I gave him somewhat of a controlled bath... him sitting on a warm wet wash cloth and me squeezing warm water over his back while loosening the membrane as much as possible. He is back in the incubator. He has some greenish/yellowish wetness down near his tail feather.... not vent.... but I am wondering if I don't have a case of yolk sac disease.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom