Helping hatch a baby chick

I needed to help hatch an 18 day baby chick in distress. 2 Hens had eaten 1/3 of the shell leaving the inner membraine intact but dried out except for a small hole near the chicks beak. The chick was chirping, coughing and sputtering. The hens then expelled the egg/chick from the nest so I brought the egg into my art studio where I turned up the heat and a humidifier. I placed the egg inside a roll of tape (to hold it in place) near the window in the sun (which is why the light seems to flicker.)

This video is taken over the courseof many hours. First I used blunt end needle nose pliers to slide under the dried membraine and then slid very fine sharp sissors between the membrane and sissors and cut it open little by little. The membrane was far to tough to tear withmy bare fingers. After peeling away each bit of membrane I waited at least 1 hour in hopes of seeing some progress on the chicks part. But each time the chick continued it's peeping and coughing.

Once the dried membrane was removed from the portion exposed by the hens I waited many hours and rotated the egg a bit so the baby could simply get up and out. In the end I titlted the egg so the baby could kick and roll itself out which it did. I then cut the flesh connecting the chick to the remaining yolk and egg as close to the shell end as possable. Then I placed the chick under the hens who shared the nest teh chick came from. One hen seemed to view the chick as a preditor so I stayed in teh coop for a while hand feeding the hens to keep them distracted till the chick setteled down and the hens began igoring it.

Hours later I checked on the chickens and as you can see when I reached under the hens out popped the head of a fluffy healthy little chick. The baby looks healthy and strong. He's eating and drinking and is climbing all over the hens who clearly are demonstrating an increase of protectoveness over him or her. The reason I'm wearing an oven mit is because these two hens are not hand tame. I got them only a few months ago and when they peck at me it really hurts.

Other background info:
The white chicken is a Naked Neck breed mix. The black bantam's breed is unclear. The egg this chick came from was a smallish/medium sized peach colored egg. The eggs the hens are sitting on came from different hens. The chick is most likely a Barred Rock/Jersey Giant mix. The Jersey Giant and small brown Bantam are the only roosters I have.

The black hen was broody for 6 weeks prior to the day of this hatch (8/8/08) The white hen when broody about a week and a half before they sat in on this group of eggs. They are sitting on 1 brown egg, 2 light brown smaller eggs, 1 pink and 1 blue. The blue egg was too thick to candle proprly and the others showed air sacks and veins when candeled. 2 eggs showed dark moving blobs when candeled on day 11. The exact lay date isn't percise because so often the other hens in teh coop would take turns laying eggs right in front of the nest of the two broody gals and then allow the broody hens to shave the newly laid eggs under themselves.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• hen
• chick
• peep
• chicken
• poultry
• nest
• pip
• helping
• coop
• pet
• chi
• hatch
• hatching
• egg

[anubuis123]

wow thts so nice if the chick was left for at least on week there it would have died and when i saw the chick lived i began to cry ;,)

[valenaulrich]

You are a wonderful, sweet person and that was very touching to watch. I'm glad the chick was okay in the end. The world needs more people like you!

[merlan114]

How does the chick eat?

[merlan114]

@11rmx call the animal control

[11rmx]

what if i bought some eggs and one was chirping and its about to come out WHAT DO I DO I HAVE NO CHICKENS

[TheCrunchyMadness]

@thealiecat coolstorybro,plztellitagain

[thealiecat]

@boolykbol yes

[thealiecat]

@megumi459 I try my best to be.

[thealiecat]

@GuitarDanJams I fully agree!

[thealiecat]

@TheCrunchyMadness me

[thealiecat]

@liverpoollad0505 The moms were protective and mean and they would sneak attack peck me and I hate being startled so yeah, I wimped out and used an oven mitt!

[thealiecat]

@MrIloveanimals111 That's really nice of you to say. Thank you.