larob24
Chirping
- Jun 23, 2016
- 16
- 10
- 59
Egg-incubating newbie here!
‍♀ We’ve had chickens for years, but always purchased chicks from the local fleet store. This year, since the kids were getting schooled from home, we thought incubating eggs might be a good learning experience. We put 19 eggs in two incubators last month, tossed 3 eggs that were not viable on Day 7, and had 15 hatch without issue between Days 20 and 21. The 16th egg pipped..but after 36 hours had passed...and we were well into Day 22...I intervened when I could tell the shell was drying out and there was little chance the chick would make it out on its own. (I’ve reconsidered that decision about a million times in the past five days...I know intervening is bad... but here we are. ) So, this chick came out like a wet noodle still attached to the egg by a thick white cord. I left it in the incubator overnight. The next day (Sunday), after realizing the chick had a large red swelled area on its abdomen, I gave the chick a little bath, applied some neosporin, and set it up in its own little brooder box. It couldn’t walk for several days..it’s legs were like rubber bands. But, day by day, it seemed to improve..it started drinking, eating a little, the legs got stronger, etc. So, today (Wednesday), I decided to give it another rinse, since the underside was looking a little messy. While I was washing it, there was suddenly a yellow substance all over my hands. It looked a lot like egg yolk. There was quite a bit of it. Can anyone tell me exactly what is going on with this chick and what I might expect? Do you think it will make it?
‍♀ We’ve had chickens for years, but always purchased chicks from the local fleet store. This year, since the kids were getting schooled from home, we thought incubating eggs might be a good learning experience. We put 19 eggs in two incubators last month, tossed 3 eggs that were not viable on Day 7, and had 15 hatch without issue between Days 20 and 21. The 16th egg pipped..but after 36 hours had passed...and we were well into Day 22...I intervened when I could tell the shell was drying out and there was little chance the chick would make it out on its own. (I’ve reconsidered that decision about a million times in the past five days...I know intervening is bad... but here we are. ) So, this chick came out like a wet noodle still attached to the egg by a thick white cord. I left it in the incubator overnight. The next day (Sunday), after realizing the chick had a large red swelled area on its abdomen, I gave the chick a little bath, applied some neosporin, and set it up in its own little brooder box. It couldn’t walk for several days..it’s legs were like rubber bands. But, day by day, it seemed to improve..it started drinking, eating a little, the legs got stronger, etc. So, today (Wednesday), I decided to give it another rinse, since the underside was looking a little messy. While I was washing it, there was suddenly a yellow substance all over my hands. It looked a lot like egg yolk. There was quite a bit of it. Can anyone tell me exactly what is going on with this chick and what I might expect? Do you think it will make it?
