Helping one of our chick’s hatch
It doesn’t always go as planned….
Chicks usually hatch on day 21 and we had 2 eggs trying to hatch still on day 23 and come day 24 the one had clearly passed away in it’s egg and the other one was trying so hard to hatch but making no progress after almost 2 days!
Typically you aren’t supposed to help chicks hatch as it can harm and even kill the chick as they are actually attached to the egg shell until they’re fully ready to hatch and you can rip blood vessels and skin off them if you aren’t careful.
If you ever experience a chick that is clearly struggling to hatch - takes longer than 24 hours and isn’t making much progress. Then it’s obviously sometimes better to assist than to let them do it on their own. Being extremely careful we took some of the outer shell but could see the membrane was still attached to the chick and because the egg had been partially hatched for a while, the membrane was dry and stuck to the chick. We ended up taking a warm cloth and slowly rubbing the membrane off the chick and put it back in the incubator. It was still visibly struggling so ended up drying it off with a hair dryer and putting it into the brooder with the other chicks so it wasn’t alone in the incubator and had access to food and water.
The chick survived for 3 days but was visibly weak the entire time and ended up not making it. Loss happens and is definitely not rare in chicks but it’s still hard. Glad we got to help it feel more comfortable while it was alive!
Where there is life, there is also loss. And vice versa!
Password for video is “intentional”