How to Raise chicken and benefits of raising Chicken

 

 If you are thinking about keeping chickens, but aren’t convinced – or you already keep chickens and were just looking for something to read! Either way, welcome! Now, back to the topic. When it comes to keeping chickens, especially for those who are just beginning to look into the topic, it can seem daunting, difficult, and maybe even a little stressful. And as appealing as the idea of keeping chickens might be, you may be wondering – is it really worth it? In this article, I’m going to be talking about some different reasons as to why chickens are a great choice, and after looking at the facts, hopefully, it’ll help you make up your mind.

1. Eggs

Yum, eggs! There’s something so appealing about seeing an egg on your breakfast plate and knowing that it came from your own flock.

You can decide if you want to free-range your flock or feed them organic feed. It’s your choice, and it makes it a lot easier than scanning the shelves for the exact carton of eggs you want in the store. Also, to clear up any confusion – no, you don’t need roosters for hens to lay eggs.

Also, if you’ve ever dreamed of having a beautiful collection of eggs in different colors and tones (Think – green, blue, white, pink, brown, cream, and more!) now’s your chance! You can pick out different breeds that lay the egg color you prefer – though the eggs only change by looks, not by taste.

Chicken eggs are a powerhouse of nutrients – Vitamin D, iodine, phosphorus, and lots of other very healthy things – and studies show that chickens that you raise at home in healthy conditions will lay far more nutritious eggs than those raised on commercial factory farms.

Doesn’t it sound amazing to be able to go out to the coop and grab a freshly laid egg for your breakfast? And if you’re stuck at home for some time, you’ll still have fresh food!

2. Low-Maintenance

Seriously. Chickens are surprisingly easy to keep and don’t require much time to take care of. The most time-consuming part of keeping chickens is getting started. (Gathering supplies, building the coop, getting set up, researching – but even that isn’t too hard!)

On an average day, you could spend about 20 minutes taking care of the chickens if you wanted. You’d want to give them feed, fresh water, let them out of their coop in the morning, lock them up at night, and gather eggs. Of course, if you love your chickens like I do, you might find yourself reading books to them and having a chat over a cup of tea with them – but obviously, that’s not mandatory.

Cleaning the coop generally shouldn’t need to be done every day – depending on the size of the coop and amount of your chickens, it could be from once a week to several months – especially if you end up using the deep litter method.

Chickens are also extremely common right now, so it’s super easy to find supplies to raise them – you can even buy entire chicken coops, just make sure the coop is sturdy and good quality before buying!

Chickens are really simple to take care of, and raising them can be extremely satisfying.

3. Inexpensive

That’s right. Chickens aren’t expensive to raise at all. True, if you buy a vast, pre-built coop and luxury items for the flock, things are going to get a little pricy. But in general, keeping chickens can leave you happy and satisfied without ending up with an empty wallet.

Common chicken breeds can cost around $5 per chick at your local feed store, and feed, bedding, and other essentials often don’t cost much – depending on your area, you can easily buy them for less than $20. Even coops – when hand-built and made with recycled materials – can cost less than $100. Or even better, if you have a shed or old playhouse, you can EASILY convert it to the coop for little money.

So, to sum it up (No pun intended), raising these beautiful, egg-laying chickens probably isn’t going to leave you bankrupt – and they’ll be giving you free breakfast. It’s a win-win!

4. Reduce Waste

Think of it – when you’re cooking, you’re probably going to end up with scraps of food – and oftentimes, those scraps are going to end up in the trash.

Why waste something that would be happily enjoyed by your outdoor friends? The chickens! They’ll happily munch on scraps, leftovers, or food that isn’t spoiled – but might look bruised. Just remember not to give them food like pizza too often – that’s not great for their health.

But adding some kitchen scraps to their diet can give them some extra vitamins and nutrients, especially if they don’t free-range. Do make sure to review poisonous foods for chickens, so you don’t accidentally feed them something bad. But if you give them some yummy scraps, your chickens will thank you!

If you take up raising chickens, you’ll not only be having a flock full of fun antics and making you smile every time you see them, but they’ll be helping you reduce waste from the kitchen!

5. Fertilizer

Yep! Not only can you reduce waste by giving your chickens scraps, but if you garden, you can use your flock’s droppings to grow more food for your kitchen, and then those scraps can go to your flock! It’s a never-ending cycle!

Just remember that you shouldn’t put the manure on your plants immediately – you want to let it age first. Mixing it with leaves, straw bedding, and other green compost is a great way to ‘cook’ it.

And if you don’t garden, or you have too much manure for yourself to handle, many gardeners would be happy to take it off your hands!

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Photo Credit: Johnathan Cooper from Shutterstock

6. Pest Control

Many chickens are great at pest control. They love patrolling the area, searching for tasty bugs to grab, which is beneficial for all of us.

Some pests that they especially like are ticks, mosquitos, ants, slugs, and more! So, if you have anything like slugs ruining your garden, chickens just might be the way to go. They’ll be happy to take down some of those pests for you! Silkies and bantam breeds are especially known for their slug-hunting skills!

7. Sustainable Living

There’s something about being able to walk out to the coop, gather eggs from your very own flock that you’ve raised, and then use those eggs to provide a nourishing meal for yourself or others that is truly unique and rewarding.

The fact that you were able to raise those chicks and be able to provide some of your own food is eye-opening. What could you do next? If you live on enough land, chickens can be the gateway to goats, bees, ducks, and more. Or you could start to learn more about gardening so that you could grow more food. Or maybe raising your own little flock is enough, just knowing that you don’t depend completely on the grocery store for all of your food is really…uplifting.

Chickens can be used for more than just eggs, too. They can produce manure for the garden, and if you’re interested in raising your own meat, chickens are a starting point that many will begin with.

When it comes right down to it, being able to raise your own food, eggs, meat, or more, is a beautiful, wonderful thing to accomplish.

8. Education

Chickens are a great way to learn where your food comes from and learn more about the animals that you might encounter in everyday life, or the products from these animals that you commonly use.

If you have children, it’s also a great opportunity to teach them responsibility by letting them take part in the chicken-tending. Collecting eggs, refilling feeders, and more are all great ways for them to learn about caring for the world around them and to be dependable.

9 Pets

Nowadays, chickens as pets have been on a rise. And for some good reasons, too!

They’re easier to care for and less expensive than cats or dogs, and they’re the pet that makes breakfast – I say that’s a pretty neat combo! Chickens are the type of pet that seems to always make you smile and have funny little antics that often will leave you laughing. It’s also extremely peaceful to watch them, and many chickens will happily jump up into your lap for some snuggle time. Some breeds, like the Silkie, are particularly great for pets, with their soft, down-like feathers.

Chickens are also great for therapy and becoming more and more popular for this purpose. Chicken therapy has been found to be a great success for people with anxiety, depression, autism, and loneliness, giving people a sense of purpose, order, and self-worth. I personally have found great comfort in chickens and consider them my “emotional support animals.”

In my opinion, chickens make a wonderful choice for pets, and they have some great qualities that make them a great option, like the ease of caring for them and their bonus of laying eggs.

Lastly, 

Chickens are great animals, they’re friendly, hardy, easy to care for, and are multi-purpose – whether you’re interested in keeping them as pets, livestock, or both, they’re a great choice to have around. There are many more reasons as to why to keep chickens, but these are my main reasons. So, do you think chickens are the right animals for you? If so, there are many resources for keeping chickens, like books, websites, and of course, here on BYC! Keeping chickens is not only fun and easy but extremely beneficial.

 

WHEN ALL THINGS FAILS , GOD IS IN CONTROL

 

WHEN ALL THINGS FAILS, GOD IS IN CONTROL.

As human we do experience one bad thing or the others but at any use or disposition God chooses to make of any part of His creation, His sovereign regn. God is accountable only to Himself. He does things in His own way, He is not required at any time to give to any person any explanation for anything He does. He is the almighty above all powers in every area of His creation.

We as human do not expect to understand fully the purpose for our trials until our Lord calls us home to be with Him. But we do know that He loves us too much and He care so much about us, and that He is far more concerned with our welfare than we are. God's choices are always right. He is capable of carrying out any project to a successful conclusion without the possibility of fault or failure. Nothing on earth happens by chance or accident. For every effect there is a cause. God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory" .

It was Wednesday, the Eighteen years of marriage of Mr and Ma Bobby without a child, They have try all their possible best looking for blessing of the womb, the doctor have try all what they can do so that Mrs Bobby can conceived but no good news. I waited expectantly in the corridor outside Mr Bobby's room. When the doctor appeared his remarks were brief and pointed.

The doctor say" We are making arrangements to position your wife for the next treatment.

He hesitated. I detected a bit of concern in his delayed reply. I was right. His words came slowly.

"There is nothing more that we can do medically for Mrs. Bobby." He placed his hand on my shoulder and patted it gently. "I'm sorry," he said, and he walked away.

I took her hand in mine. Then I assured her that there was nothing to fear because God was in control.

But did I really believe that God was in control? The mere thought of questioning the sovereignty of God scared me. But then, the government of the universe is a question with which most of us have grappled at some time. We Christians affirm our belief in the sovereignty of God, but our faith is challenged in times of natural upheaval, national disaster, or personal affliction. Pain and poverty, disease and death, sorrow and suffering all tend to cause us to think seriously about God as creator and controller of the world of which we are a part. It is not always easy to believe that God is in control.

I tell Mr and Mrs Bobby to believe in God and employed to follow God way , two of them accepted and we agreed to let God take control, Mr and Mr Bobby give their life to Christ and they begin prayer and fasting, I also help them in praying together, we do night vigil in their house and also in my house.

After strong prayer and fasting , Mr and Mrs Bobby surrender all to God and they let God take control of their childlessness. To God be the glory Mrs Bobby conceived after three months of fasting and prayer, it was a God doing and is marvelous in our eye.

Can you imaging ? What they have been looking for good eight year looking for worldly solutions was solve within just three months of God control. No matter what you are been going for days , months and years if you believe and move closer to God, He will take control and you problems , sadness will turn to joy.

He is God, and He knows what we want and what we needs, all He needed from you is your faithfulness and holiness, and believe that He is in Control.

Whatever you are going through, He is there for you, stop looking for worldly help but put all your trust and hope in Him, whatever that is above human solution in your life, remember , God is in control.

Easy and low cost ways to treat fowl Pox on your chicken

Fowl Pox is one of the common problem poultry keepers encounter ,

I want to share this with all of you, in hopes to cheer you up about and let  you know how to cure fowl Pox easily on your chickens, or to save a flock from being wrongly culled when it effective, safe cure. I have been working with these birds for nearly 20 years and it does have a cure, and they never get sick again. The virus won't lay "dormant" and re-infect your flock if you take the time to take precautions and cure every little scab you spot. The pox may never even pop up again. While vaccination does indeed work and should be the first choice for commercial flocks, the cure for us backyard chicken owners can be easily accessible for $3 dollars but they (some people, articles) don't share this information.

The secret to cure fowl pox ?

Gently remove the scabs, and coat the wound on the skin with clear nail polish. Make sure to repeat every few days. It will naturally fall off and cure itself with fresh new skin and feathers. I'm attaching a few images of a severe case I had of fowl pox before and after 1 year. This guy's fowl pox gave him coryza too, and his weakened immune system made him prone to parasites and secondary infections. I cleaned up everything, coated his eye and ear with terramycin ointment from the agriculture supply shop 1-2 times a day, and administered orally one small pea size portion of panacur's fenbendazole dewormer. He has never came up with the pox again and never infected any of his flock mates.

For birds that only have pox:

Gently removing the scabs off and applying the polish is all it takes to turn it back to a healthy bird. The bacteria that lies beneath the scab is the real culprit, and the polish prevents oxygen from reaching it, which is why even if you don't rip the scabs off, they will dry up by themselves if you apply the polish daily. They will get cured in a span from a few days to a few weeks depending how severe. My chicken was already showing improvement by 1 weeks and grew new skin and feathers by one month. It's best to keep severe cases isolated to prevent pecking and stress.  

If you see know Changes after some weeks pls call your vet doctor.

 

VITAL SECURITY TIPS FOR ALL HOME

As the security situation in our country is getting worst day by day, these are what you, your household and people around should know. You should always avoid these situations, 1 Walking alone in a lonely street at night. 2 Standing alone at the bus stop early in the morning or late at night could be a security risk. Crime can take place at all times, at any place , but there are seasons when crime is more pronounced. These seasons will be analyzed on the blog. Season and time when crime are more pronounced are" 1 DURING A RIOT- A good number of people in the rioting crowd are there not because of the reasons for the so call riot , but for their own selfish reasons – to steal, loot, and vandalize people’s properties. Some seize that opportunity to attack and eliminate perceived enemies or business competitors. So watch out at such time. 2. DURING TRANSACTION – Like when you get a large sum of money from the bank or getting your salary or when you are being paid for a job done. There are people who do nothing but hang around bank premises to monitor other people and cash movement. Some of them open account with their target banks and use that excuse to perpetrate their evil activities. Be extremely careful and watchful at such times. 3. DURING FUND RAISING – There is always a large gathering of people. These gatherings always accommodate mixed multitudes of both good and evil intention. The good one are concerned with raising funds for a good purpose but the bad ones are there to monitor the donors and the movement of cash donated at such occasions. It is common for robbers to attacks and demand for the money being raised. When you hold such occasions, it is advisable that apart from getting adequate police protection, you have security operatives in mufti mixing with the crowd to observe, monitor, and frustrate criminal activities. 4.  DURING FESTIVALS PARTIES, POLITICAL RALLIES AND CONVENTIONS- Criminal activities are always on the increase. Most robbery case are recorded during Christmas season when people celebrate, than at any other period of the year. At parties where money is sprayed robbers get attracted. At rallies and Conventions- Pick pocket thrive. You then hear of wallets lost , handsets stolen, jewelries cut, etc . During the coronation of a new Oba just last week , the handset of a senior security operative got stolen. Watch out at such times. This is a veritable crime season. When you organize such programs, don’t be stingy on security. You gain more by paying for security to be on guards when you are holding a big program. Give information about criminals and criminal activities in your area to appropriate authorities. Don’t act unconcerned. 5. PUBLIC SUPPORT- Rally your unions and communities, churches and organizations and raise funds to support security efforts by security agencies in your areas. Be your brother keepers, never thing you are good to go, always works with others to secure your immediate community. Teach your children what to do when they are alone at home. Always do good to the security men men in your community so as to get their best, if they are in need of security gadgets help them to buy it because this will help them to protect you well. Always be security conscious. Lastly in case there is gun shot , Always down on the floor whenever you heard any gun shot around you, this will protect you from bullet flying around.

HOW TO MANAGE CRD'S (Chronic Respiratory Disease) IN CHICKEN AND OTHER POULTRY BIRDS

As chicken keepers we learn new things everyday, and today I want to discuss about CRD's in chickens, what is CRD'S and how to manage them.
First , what exactly is a CRD? CRD stands for ( Chronic Respiratory Disease ) and there are many, including

1. Fowl cholera.
one of the symptoms is swollen wattle's.

2. Infectious laryngotracheitis

one of the symtoms is bubbles in eyes.

3. Infectious bronchitis
one of the symptoms is gasping

4. Infectious Coryza
one of the symptoms if facial swelling

Sadly once your chicken has become infected with one of these CRD's there is no way to treat or cure it, you can only manage it. This is because antibiotics cannot fully destroy cure the CRD. Most times the symptoms of a CRD look to be the same as those of a URI and can even be mistaken as a URI. So whats the difference between a CRD and a URI? A Chronic Respiratory Disease looks and acts the same way a respiratory infection would. Your chickens might seem weak, lethargic, maybe they are sneezing or coughing or have bubbles in their eyes. You treat them and soon all symptoms disappear making you believe they are cured, But the thing is the CRD hasn't been cured but is laying dormant. If the chicken gets stressed in anyway all of these infections may come back.
So you must give your chicken good care and always treat them of any infections before CRD come in, and they best way to keep your chicken away from infections and diseases is by making your chicken house clean and always dry , I mean always dry, when your chicken house is clean and dry, it will be difficult for infection and diseases to stay in your chicken house.
Dirty and wet chicken house is breeding place for infection and diseases.

BENEFITS OF GREEN TEA FOR YOUR POULTRY BIRDS (CHICKEN AND OTHERS)

As a chicken owner i keep finding all those natural and herbal stuff for my flock that makes my Backyard or Pet chickens super healthy .

Today's article is all about that famous herb from China & Japan that is use as a traditional Tea which contain huge health benefits , Yes Í'm talking about Camellia sinensis Aka Green Tea .

The Green tea is very high in Antioxidants . A small tea bag of Green Tea contains 10 Apples Antioxidants & flavonoids . Also green tea contain many other things too like
vitamins A, C, E and many of the B vitamins. There are 13 essential types of vitamins: A, C, D, E, K and Bvitamins (Thiamine (B1), Riboflavin (B2), Niacin (B3), Pantothenic acid (B5), Biotin (B7) Folate (B9) .

Now Lets know more about what the miracles Green Tea Can do for your chicken .  I personally used green tea on my roosters and i see good results on Cough , Cold Like Symptoms . One of it's chemicals is epigallocatechin-gallate which is known for its ability to increase the number of regulatory T cells, useful in fighting off autoimmune diseases. Other notable healing substances include fluoride, catechins, and tannins .
 
These are likely benefits of green tea

Antibacterial
Digestive aid
Diuretic
Antiinflammatory
Antiinfluenza
Antispasmodic
Antiviral
Antiulcer
Antioxidant
One of my rooster always shows some sort of walking backwards symptoms which are Vitamin E problem,. as you know vitamin E also contains antioxidants so just as a try when i give him 5 ml of  green and the symptoms almost fade away , am soo happy! So now whenever i made a cup for myself i give it to my roosters too .

there are some researches shown that green tea in chickens routine help them prevent Cocci & Ecoli .
As mentioned above, green tea is antiviral it can be used in issues like NDV (Newcastle Disease) . Green tea contains catechins, which are polyphenolic compounds that are known to exhibit strong anti-influenza activity. A study conducted on chickens by Lee HJ et al., 2012 showed that adding 10 g/kg of green tea to the diet of chickens showed significant antiviral protection against AVIAN FLU

Chemistry Of Green Tea :
Fresh green tea leaves contain five major catechins: catechin (C), (−)-epicatechin (EC), (−)-epicatechin 3-gallate (ECG), (−)-epigallocatechin (EGC) and (−)-epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG). These compounds are water-soluble and contribute to bitterness and astringency of green tea.

I Hope you are able to feel good about the use of green tea in chickens and others poultry birds . thanks for reading
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Raising Chickens and guide to assist hatching for all poultry birds

I want to address the fact that some people think assisting during a hatch is wrong. I respect the decision to not help during a hatch. It's a personal choice and everyone does what they are comfortable with. Unfortunately, people do not always return the favor and respect the decisions of those who do choose to assist during the hatch.
I would like to begin by outlining why I assist when hatching, and why some of the common arguments leveled against those who choose to assist a hatch are incorrect. I might not change anyone's mind, but I might be able to provide a response that those who are criticized for deciding to assist can provide to their critics. I do assist during hatching because I don't like to see healthy chicks die for no reason.

One of the most common arguments that are brought up against assisting during a hatch is that if a chick couldn't hatch on its own, it is weak or has something wrong with it and so should be left to die without hatching. In my experience,
I have not found this to be the case. Most of the time, when a chick needs help to hatch, it's because of things that went wrong in the incubating process. Either the humidity got too low and it shrinkwrapped, or because of the fact that it was artificially incubated it is malpositioned in the egg, or the temperature was too high so it grew too big to be able to turn and zip. Or, sometimes chicks are just so healthy and so large that they can't turn to zip.
Letting any of these chicks die by not assisting is letting a perfectly healthy chick die for no reason because something went wrong in incubation and it couldn't hatch. Can the chick be unable to hatch because something is wrong with it? Yes, that does happen. But, in all my years of hatching hundreds, probably thousands, of chicks, I have had this happen to me only three times. Twice were chicks that had slipped tendons, something that might possibly be fixable. The other time it was a shipped Call egg. The embryo was damaged during shipping and developed in a way that was incompatible with life. That one died before I could even finish the assist. Those three are the only ones out of very many assisted hatches that I've done that had real issues keeping them from hatching. The rest did well, grew up healthy, and all have given me healthy chicks that don't need help to hatch. Another argument commonly brought against those who assist is that assisting is not natural. What I say to that is, incubating itself is not natural. If we are talking natural, the natural thing is for a hen too sit on her clutch of eggs and hatch them underneath her. What is not natural is to stick eggs into what amounts to a heated box for 21 days, adding water to try to get the air cell right, sticking them in automatic turners, etc. None of that is natural, so of course, things can go wrong that will cause a chick to need help hatching. Shipping eggs through the mail is also not natural, and a big cause of chicks needing help to hatch. The final argument I hear a lot is that assisting will lead to weak birds that always need help to hatch and will overall bring down the vigor of your birds. I addressed this a little bit earlier when I said that all the chicks aside from the three that I talked about above that I have assisted have grown up healthy and strong. And that's true! None of my assisted chicks have been any weaker than their hatch mates, because usually what causes them to need help is improper incubator conditions, being malpositioned, or being hatched out of shipped eggs, all of which don't impact their health. They have grown up healthy and strong and I don't have to assist all their chicks hatch. It's mostly shipped eggs that need my help to get out. Very rarely do I have to assist a chick from my own eggs.

Now, as I said, I respect the decision not to assist. If what was said above didn't change your mind and you want to remain hands-off, that is fine. Please just respect the decision of those of us that want to assist,

These are assisted Hatching Method for All Poultry​ birds

First I would like to state that, as always, it is important not to rush to assist a hatch. Assisting too soon can kill a chick. Hatching is a process that takes time. A baby chick/duckling/gosling/etc needs to absorb its yolk and the blood in the veins along the shell before it can hatch safely. Assisting too early could cause a baby to bleed out and die, or could mean that the yolk is not fully absorbed. Luckily, the method I use has very little risk of causing a major bleeding event and killing a chick if followed correctly .
This guide will work for chicks, ducklings, geese, peachicks, keets, etc. I will just be saying chick for ease of writing and will specify if there are differences between species. If there are no notes about a specific species, then it is safe to assume that what is written is fine for all poultry not specifically mentioned. What you need to assist hatching ? For assisted hatching, I have a little kit of items. I have a small sharp screw (a small drill bit works as well), a pair of tweezers, some cotton swabs, and some coconut oil. That's all you'll need! Instead of coconut oil, you may use bacitracin or Neosporin without pain relief if you would prefer or have it on hand. It's also not a bad idea to have styptic powder or paper towels on hand in case you do cause some bleeding and need to apply pressure, or to use to prop eggs up if needed, etc. Paper towels used in assisting should always be dry. It's not a good idea to wrap a wet paper towel around an egg or place one under an egg that you are assisting. While it seems like this would help keep things from drying out, it may actually chill the hatching chick, which is not good. To increase humidity if necessary, you may place a wet sponge or paper towel elsewhere in the incubator, away from and not touching the eggs. A Safety Hole​ A lot of my assists start with a safety hole. In fact, I tend to put them in on eggs that are more valuable to me even if I don't yet think they will need to be assisted. I do it a lot with goose eggs and peafowl eggs.

A safety hole is a small hole in the air cell, rather like the pip a chick would make. I like to put mine in towards the top of the air cell, because I know I won't hit anything accidentally to cause injury putting it there and because it's very unlikely to get blocked as the chick turns to zip. I've had too many goslings, ducks, and chicks block their pip as they turned to zip, thus cutting off their air supply and causing them to suffocate. However, if you want to make it closer to where a natural pip will occur, that's fine too. A safety hole should be made if the chick has been internally pipped for 18 to 24 hours with no progress. If you don't know how long a chick has been internally pipped and are worried, the chick is making less noise than before, etc, go ahead and put the safety hole in. It won't hurt anything. To start with, use candle light to see your egg condition , the chick has internally pipped. An internal pip will look like a triangular shadow in the air cell. . When it is time for the safety hole, candle the egg to determine the position of the air cell. Once you know where the air cell is and where it's safe to make the hole, take your screw or drill bit and gently twist it back and forth on the egg while applying slight pressure. Eventually, the screw will create a small hole in the shell. Eggs with tough shells like geese might take a while to break through, just keep going. Please note that this should be a small hole. There is no need to widen it further than the size that is made by the tip of the screw. Widening it may even lead to shrinkwrapping. After making the hole, you can put the egg back into the incubator and let it work on absorbing and getting ready to hatch. The chick may well take it from there on its own and zip and hatch with no further help. After a safety hole, if a chick is capable of externally pipping on its own and continuing to progress, it will do it. The safety hole in no way impedes external pipping or hatching of the chick. Three chicken eggs with safety holes.
A safety hole in a peafowl egg. Further Assisting​ If your chick is malpositioned, please see the Malpositions section before proceeding. You may need to do some things differently than they are listed here. If it's been 18 to 24 hours since the chick externally pipped or you made a safety hole and there has been no more progress, it's time to start to assist in earnest. Ducklings and goslings take a really long time sometimes from the time of external pip to the zip. You may want to allow them 24 to 36 hours before you start an assist.
Using the external pip or the safety hole you made as a starting point, start to chip away the shell over the air cell. ONLY chip away shell that's over the air cell. There will be no veins here so it's safe to take the shell off. Elsewhere will cause bleeding and possibly death if the chick has not finished absorbing the blood and yolk. If at any point you hit blood during this procedure, stop, apply gentle pressure with a dry paper towel to the bleeding area until it stops, and then take a break for an hour or two and come back later. If you stay over the air cell, though, you should not hit blood. Once you have the air cell chipped away apply your coconut oil to the internal membrane surrounding the chick. This will both keep things moist and allow you to see whether the veins have receded and the blood has been absorbed. Below is a picture of a chick that has had coconut oil applied to its membrane that has active veins and is clearly not ready to come out of the egg yet. That chick needs more time to finish absorbing things. If you see active veins like this, put the egg back in the incubator and let it be for several hours so it can continue to absorb. After a while, the veins will recede as the chick absorbs the blood and yolk. The egg below shows an internal membrane with no veins, meaning it is closer to being ready.
However, it might still be absorbing the yolk, so don't go yanking it out yet. If the chick is making yawning or eating motions, it's still absorbing the yolk. Leave it alone for now. Ducklings especially take a long time to absorb everything. If your duckling is yawning or chewing, let it be, it's not ready. How to Get the Chick Out of the Egg​ When the membrane is no longer showing active veins, your chick is not yawning or chewing, and it seems like it's time to get it out of the egg. Here's the good news: you might not have to do anything at all. Most chicks, as long as they are not shrinkwrapped, can push themselves right out of the hole you made in the top of the egg on their own. They probably don't need your help to get out. But if the baby is stuck and can't get out, you'll know it's ready because it will be really pushing against the membrane, moving its beak like it's trying to strike the shell, and a lot of times they will cry and carry on. A baby doing that is ready. You can carefully peel the membrane away from it and widen the hole in the egg past where the air cell was if that's necessary. The chick will likely push itself right out at this point. If not, carefully free its head and use a flashlight to look down into the shell. If the yolk is gone, let it get itself the rest of the way out. If there's still yolk left and it was a little too early, see the next section. What if you accidentally did this too soon and the chick wasn't done absorbing the yolk? What if the chick got too excited to hatch and pushed itself out without absorbing the yolk? Don't panic! See the next section for what to do. Yolk Sac Not Fully Absorbed​ Your chick hatched early, or you assisted a little too soon, and the yolk was not done absorbing. Don't panic, there's an easy fix. Firstly, you need to get that chick back into the lower half of its shell, if it has come out. Tuck it gently back in there. This will protect the yolk and keep it from getting ruptured. Next, you need to keep the chick in the shell and from being able to push itself out. We accomplish this by placing the chick, shell, and all, into a small cup, which will hold the shell and the chick upright, thus preventing it from getting out of the egg.
I find that a disposable plastic cup works well for this. You may have to prop the egg upright by using a dry paper towel to hold it in the proper position. If there is a lot of yolk, it may take some time for the chick to finish absorbing it. Just let it be. When it's done, it'll be really moving around and struggling to get out of the bottom of the shell.

Malpositions​

There are several malpositions that a chick can end up in for one reason or another, such as feet over the head, head over the wing, beak away from air cell, head in the wrong end of the egg, etc. These require a little bit of a different approach when assisting. Some of these malpositions, like head over the wing, usually don't cause issues hatching so we won't be talking about them. Feet Over Head​ Feet over the head is the most common malposition behind the head over the wing. In this position, the chick's feet have ended up over its head, and because of this, it cannot get the leverage it needs to pip the shell. This will be hard to catch unless they internally pip, which they can sometimes do. In this malposition, they will usually not be able to externally pip, or if they can, they will not be able to zip. What this means is that the hatch will be a full assist. You will need to follow all the steps above from Safety Hole to hatch, or for those that externally pip, all the steps from Further Assisting onward. Facing Away From Air Cell​ In this malposition, the chick ends up positioned away from the air cell, meaning that it cannot internally pip into the air cell like it normally would. That means that when it tries to internally pip, it will have to externally pip instead. Now, the chick may end up hitting a blood vessel and bleeding out when this happens. If that's the case, there's really not much to be done. However, a lot of the time they are able to externally pip. But because they didn't get to internally pip, they still have a lot of absorbing to do. Don't start to worry that they are not progressing until it's been 30 to 48 hours from the external pip. The good news is most of the time they can hatch themselves in this position, so you will likely not have to do a thing. If help is needed, you will still want to open the egg over the air cell, even though the chick is not in there, the reason being that it's a place that you can safely open to assess how far along the veins are, etc. Then from there, you will progress in the assist. But you will nearly never have to do this. Chicks in this position have nothing that is stopping them from hatching.
Only shrinkwrapping could cause issues for a chick like this. Head in the Wrong End of Egg​ This malposition commonly results from an egg being set small end up in the turner instead of the large end up, so it is very important to make sure that you are setting the eggs correctly in the turner. In this malposition, the chick is facing the wrong way in the egg. They will end up externally pipping at the wrong end of the egg, where of course there is no air cell. Just like a Facing Away From Air Cell chick, you will need to allow more time before worrying that they are in need of help, and again, they usually can hatch all on their own. You can open the egg over the air cell to assess how far along absorbing is if it is seeming like the chick needs help. Make sure you're allowing plenty of time before doing this because most of the time, they get out on their own just fine with no interference needed. With duck eggs, especially Call eggs, sometimes the duckling cannot externally pip the shell, but you will see evidence that it has tried. The shell will look like it has a bruise. In this case, you will need to very carefully open the shell over the bruise. Start by making a small hole with your screw and then widen it until you can find the beak so that the duckling can breathe. After you find the beak, apply coconut oil to any internal membrane you have exposed so that it does not dry out. Hopefully, the duckling can take it from here. If not, and this will be common with Calls because of their short necks and beaks, you will need to go for the full assist. Just as with other assists, open the shell over the air cell so you can monitor absorption. In this case, you will probably also be able to see the yolk and will be able to know when that has been absorbed too. Here is a picture of a backward chick that is still absorbing. You can see the veins, the yolk, and the leftover embryonic waste. Once everything is absorbed, you will likely need to finish hatching the duckling out because with no bottom shell to push on it won't have the leverage to get itself out. Since you can see everything absorbing, wait until it's done, and then open the egg and take the duckling out.

Shrink wrapping

​ Shrinkwrapping occurs when the humidity was too low throughout incubation, the incubator was too dry after external pipping, or if you made the safety hole too big or didn't moisten the membrane after you started opening the shell for assisting. True shrinkwrapping does not happen as often as people say. You will hear that chicks will shrinkwrap if you so much as open the incubator once during the lockdown. This is not true. I have had chicks hatch in my incubator that I didn't know the due date on and forgot to move them into the hatcher, and they hatched fine on their own. That means that they hatched with the turner going, in an incubator that never has the humidity above 30 or 40 percent. The small hole that they make at external pip, and the small hole you make as a safety hole, is usually not large enough to allow them to shrinkwrap. Now, if the humidity has been too low all throughout incubation, then a chick might become shrinkwrapped.

What happens in shrinkwrapping is that the internal membrane pulls away from the shell and shrinks down over a chick so tightly that it cannot move to turn or get out of the egg.  the membrane has pulled away from the shell and is tight to the chick. In these cases, since the chick cannot move on its own, you will need to do a full assist, likely from Safety Hole onwards. Follow all the normal assisted hatching steps. Chick Stopped During Zipping​ If you ever have a chick that starts to zip its way out of the egg, and then stops, it is stuck and needs help. Once a chick starts zipping, it will generally finish within an hour. If you have a chick that is having a hard time zipping and is taking too long or starts to zip and then stops, go ahead and finish the zip for it. Call ducklings almost always need to be assisted, thanks to their short beaks and necks which cause them a lot of trouble when trying to hatch.
The procedure outlined above should work for them but I am a bit more aggressive as far as timelines go when I assist them. Now, I've only hatched shipped Calls so far, which likely plays a role here, but I have found that every time a Call has tried to zip on its own for me, it has blocked off its air supply and suffocated. So at this time, I don't like to let them do that. I will open up the air cell as detailed in Further Assisting before they get a chance to want to start to zip. I usually wait about 12 hours from when I do the safety hole to do this. Then I proceed as usual.

Goslings​

Gosling like ducklings, also take a very long time to hatch, so don't rush them! But I usually put safety holes in them whether I think they need it or not, because I don't like to take the chance of them blocking their air off when zipping, which I've had happen in higher instances with them than other poultry. That is a personal preference and is not something you need to do. I highly recommend checking out Pete's excellent guide to incubating geese and other waterfowl here, as it also details how he uses safety holes and a method of assisted hatching called capping. There are many excellent illustrations, too. It will also walk you through general incubation practices for geese, which are a little different than chickens j-on Hatching and Help thread. There is always someone around who can support you, answer questions, and walk you through a difficult assisted hatch.