Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Geesh!
I am so over this hatch! Maybe it's the weather or the five days of chickens hatching but I'm glad it's over! I got the incubator cleaned up, the Maran eggs put back in and the temperature set to 99.5. I'm looking very forward to that hatch but I'm glad I'll have a week's break! The little chicken I peeled out of it's shell this morning spends most of it's time on it's back doing the dying cockroach! Not good when your siblings are 2 and 3 days older geesh! And then one of the other chicks just doesn't look right. I showed it to my husband last night. I think it's missing a chromosone or something it's face looks weird, it acts drunk, and it's got a slight case of spraddle leg. Double geesh!!! The other four thank goodness are perfectly fine. Has anyone ever had a baby chick that acted like a drunken, crazy legged, goober?
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Just a guess but I bet it has something to do with cool incubator temps. The one that ends up on its' back....I've hatched some like that. We call them "flippers". Unfortunately they don't usually survive. Glad to hear you ended up with 4 good ones!
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about the temps. I'm hoping since I caught it and the temp has been correct for the last week and I still have another week to go for the Marans that they won't have this problem.
DeleteThe little one did die :,( Another lesson learned. If it can't get out of it's shell on it's own, it's probally not going to make it.
Best of luck with the ones who aren't doing well!
ReplyDeleteThank you Michelle ☺
DeleteBummer on the funky chick; if it seems to get over it's wobbly mental problems, you can fix the splayed leg with teeny-tiny hobbles. I've saved many a chick that way.
ReplyDeleteIt's legs aren't horrible just a little spread apart and it's body is so wide compared to it's tiny face. It just looks funny. I'm hoping it grows out of it. I had tried a whole band-aid, it was way to big. When the hubs gets home from work he's going to help me figure something out for it's legs.
DeleteI got over our first hatch pretty quickly. I read everything and was determined to do a good job. I noted that the paperwork said that we would likely only have a 50% successful hatch rate. At first I was enthralled at this miracle of life and I treated each one like a newborn. I had a neonatal ICU chick box, a newborn nursery, and then when all was well a normal nursery where they learned to socialize with their little siblings. We had a 100% hatch rate, which left me with about 100 chicks. We had half female and half male. We had a few that did not do well initially. We helped all of them, just as we helped the little one who got stuck in his sharp egg and was cut. All survived. However, the ones which had a tough start were the ones who passed later in the hot weather. We won't hatch anymore in the future. I will just buy occasional hens, and give our Rhode Island Red roosters to good homes. It's a shame you can't make a fortune breeding Rhode Island Red roosters, because apparently, this is where my talent lies ! LOL
ReplyDeleteMy first two hatches went perfect. 100% hatch rate. Five months later all the chickens are still doing great. This time the themometer was off, and the hatch delayed for days. It kills me to see little chickens suffer, I think that's why I'm so negative about this hatch. I thought about the simplicity of buying chicks from the feed store, less stressful and still fun ☺
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