4 min readfrom chickens

I got called stupid for assisting stuck chicks out of their shell

I got called stupid for assisting stuck chicks out of their shell
I got called stupid for assisting stuck chicks out of their shell

I hatch out over 100 chicks each year, of course I do not keep all of those chickens I usually only have tops 25 chickens, I hatch cheeks out to sell and maybe only will keep a couple Out of the hatch, occasionally there will be one or two that are struggling to get out of the egg and need a little bit of help, this year I have so far hatched out 58 chicks, out of those 58 I've only had two struggle to get out of the egg, one that started out hatching just fine but once it made a whole big enough for its head to get out of it's stuck its head out of the egg before making a whole big enough for the rest of it to come out, it wasn't able to get its head back in to get itself out completely so I had to help it a little bit.

The second chick that struggled was from Yesterday's hatch, it was the very last egg in the incubator to hatch all of the other ones had finished hatching and we're fine, I had noticed that the baby inside was crying and peeping and then after a while it started to sound weaker and weaker so when I could barely hear it I decided I was going to intervene and open up the egg.

When I opened the egg I first handled it to see if I could tell which way the baby was facing, I was able to get a good idea and was able to open up the egg near the face of the chick, when I did I was able to see that the baby had not developed its egg tooth and couldn't get out on its own, so I proceeded to slowly chip away at the egg and I got the baby out it was very ready to come out and a little bit weak from being stuck for so long.

I posted about this on a Facebook group And people called me stupid for assisting, not because it's risky to assist But because they said I should have let nature take its course And if they couldn't hatch on their own then they did not need to live.... One lady said that God intended for them not to hatch And I intervened with God's plan.

In my opinion, chickens the ones that we raise are not a natural species you will never find them in the wild unless they are feral chickens that escaped and or were dumped by humans but they are not wild, therefore technically nothing about chickens that we raise are natural and if we are going to raise them then we need to do everything we can to help them have the best life possible.

I also think it's strange that they won't help a baby chick out of the egg but a lot of these people would also risk their own safety to pull a calf from a cow struggling to have a baby on its own, I just don't understand the difference, why does one get to live and the other not when they both can if we just help?

The most valid argument anyone said was that The Offspring from those chicks that struggled to get out most likely will struggle themselves, personally I've never had that issue but I can see where it would be a concern, however you do not have to breed them if you do not want to it does not mean they do not deserve a chance at life.

Sorry for the little bit of a rant, it just kind of annoyed me, the picture of the chick is not one that struggled she's just really pretty and I thought I would attach it.

submitted by /u/Arbysgames
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Tagged with

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#feral chickens
#success rate
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#safety
#Facebook group