Originally Posted by Lacelady
Not knowing anything about it, why is it so bad to help the chicks and break a bit more shell for them? To me, it seems that if you helped with breaking more shell, they would arrive less exhausted. Is that a bad thing to do?
In helping the chick you can often times do more damage than good. If the membrane hasn't separated yet like it should, you can cause bleeding. Sometimes you help a chick that otherwise might not have made it, but most times you should just let nature do what it does best. :) Course an incubator isn't "nature" but the type of hens I have won't set a clutch of eggs, it's just been bred out of them. They're egg producing machines, but they have no interest in setting them.
Last night I had 4 chicks that had hatched, this morning there were 10. Sadly there was one that had partially hatched but had died. That's the part I don't like. :(