Hatching assistance

Tuesday afternoon an egg was pipping.  This means that it had cracked a hole in the egg with its beak.  Tuesday night, nothing had changed and I was a little worried.  

Tuesday evening

 I was worried that if I left it with the hen, and it hatched, she would peck it to death before I woke up in the morning since she'd already pecked at the first two chicks.

So Tuesday night I removed part of the shell, leaving the protective membrane.  The membrane was very dry and there was a gap between the shell and the membrane so it came off easily.  I had hoped that it would be easier for the chick to just tear through the membrane.

Wednesday morning, nothing had changed.  So I broke off more of the shell and waited.

Wednesday morning

 It was getting weaker, that was obvious, and it had only torn through the membrane a little more.

I read a lot online about how dangerous it was to help a chick out of the membrane, but I also read that if a chick wasn't out of the egg in 24 hours, it was a bad sign.  I needed to leave for work and I wasn't willing to risk the chick dying in the egg while I was at work.

So I slowly and carefully helped it out of the membrane.  It was pushing through, but it would need a little help now and then.

It finally made its appearance.

It was limping a bit that day, I think because part of the umbilical cord had been wrapped around its leg, but by the next day it was fitting in just fine with the others.