As a homeschool family, we enjoy learning in every aspect of life. This hatching...has taught us a LOT!
Chicks need to experience breaking the shell themselves. However, as I watched chick after chick hatch and not see any progress happening with this one...last night, before going to bed, I tore just a few tiny pieces back from the shell to encourage it to make progress. As of this morning, nothing changed. This chick was crying and crying. As I pulled a few pieces of shell off I found out it was shrink-wrapped and simply couldn't get out. All the blood veins in the lining had already dried up. And as I watched this chick struggle and kick but not be able to move...that's how I found out it was attached to it's twin in the shell.
We used floss, as suggested, to tie off on the dead chicks side. There was a small amount of yoke still left. The dead chick was fully formed and probably died yesterday as all my other chicks... including it's twin... made an air hole...this little guy didn't have any room to start pipping. So sad for this twin that didn't make it. And we were hopeful that the surviving twin would make it.
After cutting on the other side of the floss I used corn starch to stop any possible bleeding. However, there wasn't any blood.
Someone suggested putting it into a small bowl and placing it back into the incubator until the remaining yoke has been absorbed and dried up. I couldn't find a bowl small enough so I used this old milk glass teacup.
We placed the egg shells in order according to when they hatched. All I have are shards of shell from this last one...along with one crazy experience!
