Two of the early birds are doing well. They are eating and drinking.
The third not so well. See pictures.
The legs are pointing straight back. We found some posts that show how to 'hobble' the bird, but we are not sure this will help.
Otherwise, the chick is very loud, and will drink...
The third chick finally came out. Its legs are splayed out and backwards. We read that this could be due to low humidity.
I talked to my egg source. She says she picked the eggs Monday evening. I picked them up from work Tuesday at lunch. so that is the amount of time they were not in the...
@Peppercorngal - We put some cut up rags in the water reservoir to boost the humidity, and got it up to 50%.
I read on this site that for hatching, humidity needs to be at >60% but for incubating between 25% and 50%. We have to accommodate both. We will see how it goes.
The design of the...
Done. Two have hatched.
One started pipping yesterday but is still in the shell. It has a nice sized hole open, but is just in there chirping. I assume we don't take any helping action.
I will pass along the recommendation on collecting eggs. I got eggs from another friend years ago and...
Surprise surprise! three chicks coming out after only one week. (They must have been sat on by a chicken for a couple of weeks.)
We are in a quandary now of trying to get our humidity up. The one that is fully out seems ok, though has to put up with a slow moving tray.
I am worried about...
Curious as to the eating and drinking volume of 5 chicks in the first 2.5 days in the brooder. Here is a picture of the water and feed dishes.
You can see most of the feed bottle is empty. Maybe 75% of the water bottle is emty. One chick did not eat or drink for the first day, but it...
Hydration and some food seem to be working. I was not able to get a vitamin solution, so fed a mix of water and chick food. The chick food states it has vitamins - probably not the same amount. Probably the hydration and time was all that was needed.
The chick is no longer falling on its...
I thought I saw a beak, but it was hard to tell. I did move the membrane around and it was very wet, but I did not open the egg up anymore, so did not verify if there was liquid pouring out. Lesson learned to do that in these cases.
Would this be an issue of the air space not growing enough, or even with the air space growing, there could be too much liquid?
I ask because candling is a diagnostic for the air space. If you candle and see that the air space is not growing as much for one egg, do you put that one in a dryer...
We had 5 chicks hatch. #5 hatched ~20 hours ago, and is smaller and weak. It prefers to lay down. It can move around, with poor balance. It can be loud. I also found #5 laying on its back.
The other chicks (at most a day older), are running around, drinking and eating.
After reading...
I cracked open the egg at the air pocket. It looks like it made it to a late stage then something happened. No movement. Even at day 20 and 21, we did not notice movement in this egg.
Thoughts for the benefit of the next incubation?
5th came out around 11pm. Very small, not healthy looking. Had a sack attached to behind, and was trailing blood.
In morning though, the chick looks better. Is moving around. Still small but maybe part of that is growth by first-outs.
One egg remains. Candling shows no activity. Will give it...
Fourth one is out, about 22 hours after first. Has some egg shell on neck. Any issue with this?
Behavior similar to the others. Others are very active.
One remaining egg showing good signs.
Other remaining egg not showing anything.
We notice that the first out chicks are pecking at one still in the shell. they are pecking at the beak that is poking out - not the shell (not helping in other words.
Any issue with this? segregate them somehow?
Day 21&1/2
Three out and they are active.
Two of the other eggs have breaks in the shells, and we can see them moving. Is there a point at which we should help them or take any action?
One egg shows no activity, no breaks.
A third came out - with dark coloring. Probably around 9-10am, which puts it about 3-4 hours behind #2. It looks fairly dry already, and seems healthy.
No movement in the other 3 eggs. One had definite movement yesterday and was the most active the night before that. We are getting...