I had no intention of doing an assisted hatch. I am firmly of the belief that the first step in maintaining a healthy flock is to never perpetuate problems.
However, after discussing it with people who knew more than I do, it seemed that the late egg from my first hatch, the one that had spent hours and hours half-zipped, had become shrink-wrapped when I took the already hatched chicks out. Since the chick's cheeping was getting weaker and shrink-wrapping isn't the chick's fault I decided to do a light assist -- peeling away dry, tough membrane and just chipping away tiny bit of shell at the ends of the zip to reach soft membrane.
Within minutes Slowpoke had vigorously kicked himself free of the shell -- revealing himself to be splay-legged and to have a badly-curled foot. Yes, he *was* shrink-wrapped, but he had failed to zip for a reason. Now I had a live chick, but one in need of additional assistance.
A chick shoe made from blue painter's tape and hobbles made from a hairtie and a bit of plastic straw got that problem taken care of. (Note: I did not brood him specially, but put him into the brooder with the others once I saw that he could shuffle around to reach the food and water -- which I set a little closer to the brooder plate than I might otherwise have done).
Fast forward to 12 weeks and it's clear that this young cockerel was unable to hatch on his own for a very good reason. He's severely deformed -- wry-tailed and hunchbacked. Able to mostly keep up with his peers so far, but significantly smaller and definitely not a candidate for a permanent member of anyone's flock.
It will be interesting to see what his carcass looks like at butchering age and if there are any problems with his internal organs. I'll update this after he's been butchered.
I *think* I made the right decision to peel away dried membrane, but I know that I am making the right decision to butcher him so that he will never father chicks to inherit his deformity.
Update at 15 weeks:
His wry tail is now cocked almost 90 degrees. He walks like Quasimodo -- but you can see that he's active enough that it's hard to get decent photos and he doesn't seem to be in pain so I'm letting him grow along with the others until I'm ready to butcher any who don't sell.
He is, however, barely over half his hatchmates' size:
However, after discussing it with people who knew more than I do, it seemed that the late egg from my first hatch, the one that had spent hours and hours half-zipped, had become shrink-wrapped when I took the already hatched chicks out. Since the chick's cheeping was getting weaker and shrink-wrapping isn't the chick's fault I decided to do a light assist -- peeling away dry, tough membrane and just chipping away tiny bit of shell at the ends of the zip to reach soft membrane.
Within minutes Slowpoke had vigorously kicked himself free of the shell -- revealing himself to be splay-legged and to have a badly-curled foot. Yes, he *was* shrink-wrapped, but he had failed to zip for a reason. Now I had a live chick, but one in need of additional assistance.
A chick shoe made from blue painter's tape and hobbles made from a hairtie and a bit of plastic straw got that problem taken care of. (Note: I did not brood him specially, but put him into the brooder with the others once I saw that he could shuffle around to reach the food and water -- which I set a little closer to the brooder plate than I might otherwise have done).
Fast forward to 12 weeks and it's clear that this young cockerel was unable to hatch on his own for a very good reason. He's severely deformed -- wry-tailed and hunchbacked. Able to mostly keep up with his peers so far, but significantly smaller and definitely not a candidate for a permanent member of anyone's flock.
It will be interesting to see what his carcass looks like at butchering age and if there are any problems with his internal organs. I'll update this after he's been butchered.
I *think* I made the right decision to peel away dried membrane, but I know that I am making the right decision to butcher him so that he will never father chicks to inherit his deformity.
Update at 15 weeks:
His wry tail is now cocked almost 90 degrees. He walks like Quasimodo -- but you can see that he's active enough that it's hard to get decent photos and he doesn't seem to be in pain so I'm letting him grow along with the others until I'm ready to butcher any who don't sell.
He is, however, barely over half his hatchmates' size:
