The ethics of assisted hatching

[Susan Skylark]

I read the faq on assisted hatching and decided it wasn’t something I was interested in trying, between the issues with the resulting chicks and the time/complexity involved, but my 12 year old quail associate had other ideas! We had a batch of 27 eggs in lockdown and all the hatchable eggs had hatched within 36 hours. We were down to two that had never pipped (died day 11 and 12), one that had pipped but died before progressing, and one with a partial zip that hadn’t progressed in 12 hours but was still alive as you could see the beak move. I got out voted by my junior partner and we carefully used a forceps to widen the zip until the chick could hatch, he was rather dry but lively but also had a kinked neck. He’s improved slightly with some physical therapy but I’m guessing we’ll be culling him in a couple days. Do these weak/deformed chicks ever make it? It is certainly a better death than letting him die in the egg (he can eat and drink) and I really didn’t want to run the incubator a few more days just to wait for him to die either. How do you decide to assist or not, or even to open an egg and euthanize a deformed chick? No wrong answers, and maybe it is a case by case decision with no easy answers, just curious as to a more experienced incubator’s take on this sort of situation.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I had a similar situation recently. I assisted and it took the chick about 3 days to get over the kinked neck, then I couldn't pick it out from the others. The hatch was already presold, so if it was deformed I would have culled it because it wouldn't be fair to charge the buyer.

I had a hen once upon a time that never really ever got over the wry neck. Current me would cull it, but back-then me thought it was cute even if it wasn't 100%.

 

[CloneFly]

I read the faq on assisted hatching and decided it wasn’t something I was interested in trying, between the issues with the resulting chicks and the time/complexity involved, but my 12 year old quail associate had other ideas! We had a batch of 27 eggs in lockdown and all the hatchable eggs had hatched within 36 hours. We were down to two that had never pipped (died day 11 and 12), one that had pipped but died before progressing, and one with a partial zip that hadn’t progressed in 12 hours but was still alive as you could see the beak move. I got out voted by my junior partner and we carefully used a forceps to widen the zip until the chick could hatch, he was rather dry but lively but also had a kinked neck. He’s improved slightly with some physical therapy but I’m guessing we’ll be culling him in a couple days. Do these weak/deformed chicks ever make it? It is certainly a better death than letting him die in the egg (he can eat and drink) and I really didn’t want to run the incubator a few more days just to wait for him to die either. How do you decide to assist or not, or even to open an egg and euthanize a deformed chick? No wrong answers, and maybe it is a case by case decision with no easy answers, just curious as to a more experienced incubator’s take on this sort of situation.

I've primarily hatched quail chicks- and with each hatch I've had to assist at least once. It may be the fact that they're all so staggered that by the time I need to removed a fluffy chick, someone else may be hatching and gets shrinkwrapped.

All of the chicks I've assisted either die shortly after hatching (2) or go on to live fulfilling lives and die from other causes much later down the line. I belive one should know first what they are doing then follow gut instinct. Some chicks take a while to heal after, but so long as they're eating and drinking, I consider that a win and let nature deal with the rest

 

[Nabiki]

I wouldn't worry too much about the chick with wry neck. As long as it's eating and drinking, it can live a pretty normal life.

Assisting is a tough choice. Most of the time a chick has problems hatching because there is something wrong with it. They often don't survive or need to be culled, but sometimes the chick thrives and does well.

 

[Chicken_tiger_catt]

I read the faq on assisted hatching and decided it wasn’t something I was interested in trying, between the issues with the resulting chicks and the time/complexity involved, but my 12 year old quail associate had other ideas! We had a batch of 27 eggs in lockdown and all the hatchable eggs had hatched within 36 hours. We were down to two that had never pipped (died day 11 and 12), one that had pipped but died before progressing, and one with a partial zip that hadn’t progressed in 12 hours but was still alive as you could see the beak move. I got out voted by my junior partner and we carefully used a forceps to widen the zip until the chick could hatch, he was rather dry but lively but also had a kinked neck. He’s improved slightly with some physical therapy but I’m guessing we’ll be culling him in a couple days. Do these weak/deformed chicks ever make it? It is certainly a better death than letting him die in the egg (he can eat and drink) and I really didn’t want to run the incubator a few more days just to wait for him to die either. How do you decide to assist or not, or even to open an egg and euthanize a deformed chick? No wrong answers, and maybe it is a case by case decision with no easy answers, just curious as to a more experienced incubator’s take on this sort of situation.

I have done a few assisted hatches. Ironically, the last batch of chickens I did, the one I assisted is doing great, and the one who hatched on their own died.

I of course went out and bought 3 more chicks, because Uno was alone, and well………. Chicken math chicken maths. Went to buy a replacement Plymouth Barred Rock, brought her home along with a pair of Bearded Americana. Why? Because fluffy. I’m very impulsive.

 

[Whraith]

I will assist any not hatched on day 2 of hatching if they are at least pipped. Any I assist hatch I don't tend to breed from, I normally mark them to identify them so they are sorted out in the cull group for the freezer. Things I have had from those chicks, curled feet that never straighten out even after taping them/massaging them, wry neck that does correct itself within a day or two. It is just not worth it for me to breed from them when I have plenty of others but I have no problem feeding them up as long as they are capable of thriving on their own with some early assistance.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

I will assist any not hatched on day 2 of hatching if they are at least pipped. Any I assist hatch I don't tend to breed from, I normally mark them to identify them so they are sorted out in the cull group for the freezer. Things I have had from those chicks, curled feet that never straighten out even after taping them/massaging them, wry neck that does correct itself within a day or two. It is just not worth it for me to breed from them when I have plenty of others but I have no problem feeding them up as long as they are capable of thriving on their own with some early assistance.

I sometimes wonder though, whether the hard hatches are genetic defects or just darn bad luck. If I can hear them calling for help from inside the shell, seems to me they're fighters.

 

[scyllarus]

I used to not assist, but the frustration, anxiety, and eventual heartbreak over the dead-in-the-shell chicks won out - and my first assist was partially because I had ordered hatching eggs from a breeder I liked and it was important to me to get live chicks out of it. It's just less anxiety for me to crack into the air cell, rub oil on the membrane, and see where the chick is at in the hatching process.

Out of the chicks I've assisted, I would say...1 died due to my error (it drowned in a jar lid of water), 3-5 had some form of deformity that either corrected itself or that I corrected (a wry neck that fixed itself after 2-3 days, some curled toes and splay legs that required fixing), and the rest - probably around two dozen - were perfectly healthy as far as I can tell. In all fairness, I only started assisting a hatch or two ago, so those babies are only about 5 weeks right now, but none of them seem to have any issues.

It's absolutely up to you if you want to assist or not, I can see the pros and cons of either side. My personal experience has been that most of the chicks I assist in hatching are healthy and happy - if I had more who needed culling, or even more that needed special care/fixing, I probably wouldn't do it as it would be proof to me that the chicks that need assistance are disadvantaged in some way.

 

[Susan Skylark]

This is my first quail OB! He’s got a crooked neck (reason he couldn’t hatch) but holds his own in the brooder even so. I’ve done plenty of obstetrical procedures/c-sections on mammals, but in those cases even if the calf is dead you can often save the cow, but it is different in bird world so just curious as to how people determine when to help and when not. This guy had a pea sized hole, I could see the bill, but he didn’t progress in 12 hours. Everything else was hatched and I wanted to clean the incubator. So we helped him and necropsied the 3 dud eggs, one of which pipped but then just died, the others were dead day 11 or 12 embryos. Very interesting, thanks for all the responses!