- Apr 7, 2015
- 21
- 2
- 89
Bad News:
In the spring I was so excited by a healthy and happy group of 8 Buff Orpington chickies I'd gotten and raised up to about 6 weeks... Then we had friends who were excited to chick sit for us while we went out of state for a week to meet our new grand baby. They had been set up for chickens, previously, but our chicks found an escape and apparently became dinner for a coyote or other predator...
:.(
Good News:
3-1/2 weeks ago Hubby came home from a job where they raised silkies, with a dozen eggs. I'd already gotten an incubator with hopes of acquiring some Lavender Orpington eggs from Jody & Charlie... (Still want to do that...) Incubation went well with the little Farm Innovators circulated air incubator and e-turner (my phrase)...until day 16 when the temps started varying wildly... I noticed that the temps would drop a bit until the heater would come on, then even after it came up a little and turned off, the temperature would continue to spike up to about 104. I immediately suspected the only other thing that could cause heat... the e-turner motor, so I got it right out, and turned the eggs 3-4 times per day by hand...Took constant vigilance and adjustments for about 2 hours before I finally got the temps to level out and fluctuate by only a half-degree 99.5-100. I kept the humidity at 60-70% to this point and turned for the last time on the night of the 18th day, but I upped the humidity to about 75-80% that evening and considered this "lockdown" stage.
To my AMAZEMENT, I started hearing and then seeing chickies on day 19 (1 chick at bedtime, 3 more during the night) and day 20 (3 more early in the day/1 more that evening). So we had a total of 8 chicks from 12 eggs before day 21 even arrived. By evening of day 21 (yesterday), no more chicks. Since I detected no further pipping of the final 4 eggs, so I transferred our adorable little 8 peepers to a brooder and finally got to handle them and cuddle them a bit...
They are eating pulverized Old-Fashioned Oats, with pulverized Acidophilus tablet mixed in, and drinking water like pros. This evening I'll treat them to some finely chopped hard-boiled egg and tomorrow I'll add in chick starter crumbles, and continue with the pulverized acidophilus. (This had worked splendidly with the Buff Orp Chickies we had enjoyed raising this spring...no stress issues (frothy liquid poo) beyond 24hrs after bringing them home from our Orschlyn Farm Store.) Woohoo!!! These little peepers are ADORABLE, and take to being huddled, cuddled, and cooed over. Lol!
...ok, now to my nagging "Question on 'pre-hatch death'...matters of responsibility, and feelings of guilt":
1) I knew there were a couple (2) of eggs that had an exceptionally thick/raised rim shell around the larger air-sac end of those eggs which gave me concern from initially setting them. Maybe I shouldn't have even gambled on those two eggs...
2) I know I had the day 16 issue where I had a short span of wild temp fluctuations before desperately getting it under control.
3) The "peak/surge" of hatching had obviously ceased by mid Day 20 with only one more hatching late that eve. Maybe I should have considered lockdown to have ended by then and examined the remaining 4 eggs THEN instead of the eve of Day 21...
4) When I DID finally open up the incubator to remove chickies to the brooder, and gave an ALL-OVER inspection of the remaining 4 eggs, I decided to open up the air sac end of the most noticeably "thickened" egg... hoping to discover a chickie that was healthy, but just unable to defeat that thick ended egg...but, no sign of life... no chirping, no movement, no response... Ok, you KNOW what I did then, I went ahead and carefully opened the egg and released the fully developed lifeless little chickie from his shell... I didn't cry, but I felt like it... I still do...
5) The last 3 eggs are still in the incubator... (Day 22) and, no, I don't expect that anything is different with them than with the one egg I opened... They have no cracks, no oozing, no pips, no signs of anything bad, but also, no signs of life...
6) Ok, so I should have been on here sooner than this... for sure!!! Because now I see a post talking about making an artificial pip /small hole in the air sac end to potentially save, give air to a potentially healthy late bloomer... I'm going to do it now, but... It seems clear that I should have done that maybe at the end of day 20 when all apparent hatching activity had ceased.
...All I know for sure is that I feel responsible for bringing those little peeps to develop fully, and then die...maybe needlessly and
I'm very sad... I'm also very thankful for the healthy 8, to be sure!!! I don't take that lightly... Thank YOU, Lord Jesus!!! But, Lord, through the kindness and wisdom of this forum, also, help me learn where I may have made crucial mistakes... and, help me process the lingering sense of loss/grief. I'll be honest... it wouldn't have hit me like this if I'd have disposed of the unhatched eggs without opening that one... and you KNOW, when I finally give up on the other 3, I'll have a look to see if, as I suspect, that they too had actually developed... but, I want to get this right, and do this right, and better understand what that entails... for next time and beyond.
Your input, my BYC friends, will be greatly appreciated.
Blessings!
MegH
In the spring I was so excited by a healthy and happy group of 8 Buff Orpington chickies I'd gotten and raised up to about 6 weeks... Then we had friends who were excited to chick sit for us while we went out of state for a week to meet our new grand baby. They had been set up for chickens, previously, but our chicks found an escape and apparently became dinner for a coyote or other predator...
:.(
Good News:
3-1/2 weeks ago Hubby came home from a job where they raised silkies, with a dozen eggs. I'd already gotten an incubator with hopes of acquiring some Lavender Orpington eggs from Jody & Charlie... (Still want to do that...) Incubation went well with the little Farm Innovators circulated air incubator and e-turner (my phrase)...until day 16 when the temps started varying wildly... I noticed that the temps would drop a bit until the heater would come on, then even after it came up a little and turned off, the temperature would continue to spike up to about 104. I immediately suspected the only other thing that could cause heat... the e-turner motor, so I got it right out, and turned the eggs 3-4 times per day by hand...Took constant vigilance and adjustments for about 2 hours before I finally got the temps to level out and fluctuate by only a half-degree 99.5-100. I kept the humidity at 60-70% to this point and turned for the last time on the night of the 18th day, but I upped the humidity to about 75-80% that evening and considered this "lockdown" stage.
To my AMAZEMENT, I started hearing and then seeing chickies on day 19 (1 chick at bedtime, 3 more during the night) and day 20 (3 more early in the day/1 more that evening). So we had a total of 8 chicks from 12 eggs before day 21 even arrived. By evening of day 21 (yesterday), no more chicks. Since I detected no further pipping of the final 4 eggs, so I transferred our adorable little 8 peepers to a brooder and finally got to handle them and cuddle them a bit...
They are eating pulverized Old-Fashioned Oats, with pulverized Acidophilus tablet mixed in, and drinking water like pros. This evening I'll treat them to some finely chopped hard-boiled egg and tomorrow I'll add in chick starter crumbles, and continue with the pulverized acidophilus. (This had worked splendidly with the Buff Orp Chickies we had enjoyed raising this spring...no stress issues (frothy liquid poo) beyond 24hrs after bringing them home from our Orschlyn Farm Store.) Woohoo!!! These little peepers are ADORABLE, and take to being huddled, cuddled, and cooed over. Lol!...ok, now to my nagging "Question on 'pre-hatch death'...matters of responsibility, and feelings of guilt":
1) I knew there were a couple (2) of eggs that had an exceptionally thick/raised rim shell around the larger air-sac end of those eggs which gave me concern from initially setting them. Maybe I shouldn't have even gambled on those two eggs...
2) I know I had the day 16 issue where I had a short span of wild temp fluctuations before desperately getting it under control.
3) The "peak/surge" of hatching had obviously ceased by mid Day 20 with only one more hatching late that eve. Maybe I should have considered lockdown to have ended by then and examined the remaining 4 eggs THEN instead of the eve of Day 21...
4) When I DID finally open up the incubator to remove chickies to the brooder, and gave an ALL-OVER inspection of the remaining 4 eggs, I decided to open up the air sac end of the most noticeably "thickened" egg... hoping to discover a chickie that was healthy, but just unable to defeat that thick ended egg...but, no sign of life... no chirping, no movement, no response... Ok, you KNOW what I did then, I went ahead and carefully opened the egg and released the fully developed lifeless little chickie from his shell... I didn't cry, but I felt like it... I still do...
5) The last 3 eggs are still in the incubator... (Day 22) and, no, I don't expect that anything is different with them than with the one egg I opened... They have no cracks, no oozing, no pips, no signs of anything bad, but also, no signs of life...
6) Ok, so I should have been on here sooner than this... for sure!!! Because now I see a post talking about making an artificial pip /small hole in the air sac end to potentially save, give air to a potentially healthy late bloomer... I'm going to do it now, but... It seems clear that I should have done that maybe at the end of day 20 when all apparent hatching activity had ceased.
...All I know for sure is that I feel responsible for bringing those little peeps to develop fully, and then die...maybe needlessly and
I'm very sad... I'm also very thankful for the healthy 8, to be sure!!! I don't take that lightly... Thank YOU, Lord Jesus!!! But, Lord, through the kindness and wisdom of this forum, also, help me learn where I may have made crucial mistakes... and, help me process the lingering sense of loss/grief. I'll be honest... it wouldn't have hit me like this if I'd have disposed of the unhatched eggs without opening that one... and you KNOW, when I finally give up on the other 3, I'll have a look to see if, as I suspect, that they too had actually developed... but, I want to get this right, and do this right, and better understand what that entails... for next time and beyond.
Your input, my BYC friends, will be greatly appreciated.
Blessings!
MegH
