I spent most of yesterday and a bunch of the day before helping a baby Chicken get out of its shell. You aren’t supposed to do that but it was over a day behind its siblings and hadn’t been able to pop the shell.

It was cold and alone in the nest while mommy and her babies were running around. It would have died but my lady felt it wiggling in the egg. We could feel it tapping and hear its little chirps but it couldn’t get out. We got a hot water bottle and made a wam nest for the egg in a beanie (toque for you Canucks) We figured it would die in the egg when its air sack ran out or maybe us helping could save it. So we shaved a tiny hole in the egg where it was tapping. Beanie, as we started to call it, wasn’t going to die gasping.

We put the egg in with its momma overnight hoping she could handle the rest herself and momma would wake up with her last baby hatched.

Beanie wasn’t out of her egg in the morning. The hole we made was much larger and we could see a little beak but the chick hadn’t been able to spin around to “unzip.” We brought her back inside into the beanie hot water bottle nest. We got a wet cloth to help keep the membranes in the egg from drying out and shrink wrapping around beanie. we did some more research and found someone who had performed the blasphemous procedure we were attempting. We chipped away bits of the shell being careful to not disturb the inner membrane as the chicks circular system is attached to it. The first little mistake made us slow down dramatically. I felt so bad as the little red spot grew and relived when it stopped growing. Once there was a large enough hole in the egg the membrane started to dry out as Beanie pulled all the blood out of it.

Beanie was kicking but but still seemed unable to get free for the egg. The membrane was too strong and too tight. So we got some warm water and a cotton tip and started rehydrating the membrane where Beanie was putting pressure. suddenly the membrane ripped. We kept moistening as beanies little feet and wings pushed out until finally we had an empty egg and a sweet little peeper.

We coddled her in her beany for the rest of the day worrying about whether her feet were messed up or if her feathers would fluff up properly. By the time all the other chooks were in bed she had fluffed up revealing her to be a beautiful golden girl. We put her with her mom and 10 siblings overnight because keeping her warm is hard work for people.

This morning she is still a bit slow compared to her siblings so she is hanging out with me and eating the crumbs off my shirt. She is happy and healthy and a pest.