So I assisted a hatch....

[Patiocoturnix]

19... 330 pm, to be precise. Day 21 at 330 pm was Sunday afternoon, so 2 days out. The incubators had stopped turning.

I wonder if it could be an early piper but natj is right the blood means it was still absorbing its yolk although I have had one or two chicks pip way before they were ready to hatch. You also said you candled them when putting them in the hatcher so you would’ve seen the internal pip.

 

[rbc-bow-chicka]

Here’s the best of the day by day ones I’ve seen so far here’s the Link if you want to check it out.

View attachment 3816537View attachment 3816538View attachment 3816539View attachment 3816540View attachment 3816541

**THIS**!!! YES! Thank you !!!

 

[rbc-bow-chicka]

I wonder if it could be an early piper but natj is right the blood means it was still absorbing its yolk although I have had one or two chicks pip way before they were ready to hatch. You also said you candled them when putting them in the hatcher so you would’ve seen the internal pip.

I am not sure I'm a savvy enough candler that I would see a pip. Mainly, I was looking for a dark mass filling the shell. I will have to add that to things I look for.

Early pipper and then slow hatcher... why not?! Lol. This is just becoming one more thing to put in my book of chick hatching 'weird stuff.'

This chick is a little thing.... but hanging tough with the bigger kids. I went out for a few hours after its inclusion, sure that I would come home to some horrific chick trauma... and I was again wrong about this one's will to hang in there.

It's the little yellow chipmunk to the right of the bigger golden chipmunk.... eating something off of the bigger one's fluff.

 

[McChooky]

Its hard to know for sure but it makes more sense that this was an early piper and slow hatcher which caused the membrane to dry out. You did an excellent job with this hatch and should be proud of yourself!

 

[rbc-bow-chicka]

I wondered if it could be something about when you opened the incubator to take out the other chicks. But that doesn't really make sense, given that the humidity was high before and after and you were fast about it, and considering how common it is to take chicks out quicky and have no problems with later chicks that are still hatching.

I suppose it could have gotten shrink wrapped during the time you were assisting, but I can't see why the membrane would dry out in the part of the shell farthest from the opening, so that doesn't really make sense either.

So maybe something specific to that chick and it's development, or maybe just bad luck. Neither of those would be anything you can control. But you may want to keep track of which chick this was, and not breed from it when it grows up. I say this because of how late it was at hatching, not just the shrink wrapping. (Speed of development, and ability to hatch without assistance, are partly inherited.)

You said you kept finding blood when you tried to assist, so that would mean the chick was still absorbing the yolk at that time. But this was after all the other chicks had fully absorbed their yolks and finished hatching, so this one was definitely running late. That makes me wonder if it had something wrong (in addition to the shrink wrapping), or if it is just slow to develop.

I do think you are right...that there could be something else unknown at play. i'm going to put 2 leg bands on this one to make sure I keep it straight for future remembering.

I candled twice in the dry incubator. Once at 8 days and again at 19 before the hatcher.

The other 9 chicks were left in the closed and humid hatcher until completely dry and still no movement from this one, which prompted me to remove them so I could turn focus to the remaining 2 eggs. This one was chirping and obviously alive, so it became the long drawn out rescue mission. I'm really glad I helped out.

After my 2015 rescue, I swore off 'helping'.... and now wish I had tried... as I had 2 over the next couple of years that had perished as I fought the urge to intervene. Dragging it out and forcing the chick to fight I think is the important part. Thankfully I had the time and desire.

 

[rbc-bow-chicka]

Its hard to know for sure but it makes more sense that this was an early piper and slow hatcher which caused the membrane to dry out. You did an excellent job with this hatch and should be proud of yourself!

Thank you so much for that. I have not been brave enough to check on it this morning with the other chicks. For me, that is always the worst part of having a little bit, is seeing if it survived the sleep pile.

 

[rbc-bow-chicka]

This is probably easy to understand but I do not lol. Could you reword it just a bit? Thanks.

Usually shrink wrapping is caused by a sudden change in temperature and humidity whether you opened to incubator to grab chicks or what not. So high humidity in the incubator then it got opened and the humidity suddenly dropped.



All around I think you did a great job with the assist and the chick should be fine.

And thank you. I appreciate the comforting words! In a little bit, we will see how it did last night with the gang.