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GR Chicks said:
Well it didn't make it.....I went to check it and the sack was turning green, so I started to pick up the chick and all of the sudden a river of bright green ooze came running out of the chicks umbilical area. I was freaked out and worried about disease, so I had to put it down. If you scroll to the sponsors at the end of the page, it was as green as the Natrona sign. GROSS!
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Sorry. I have found these types of things to be a part of hatching my own eggs. What I will do is keep a record of which hen laid the egg and if it happens again from the same hen I either won't hatch any more from her or cull her from my breeding program. I was having a bit of a problem with that last year and tracked it down to one hen. I quit using her eggs for incubator hatching, but I decided to let her hatch her own eggs to see if that would make a difference. She laid 12 eggs and turned broody, she hatched 10 chicks out of those 12 eggs. Six of the chicks that hatched had unabsorbed yolk sacs, 3 others were very weak and lived less than 24 hours and the last one lived only 6 days. I don't necessarily coddle my chicks, but I do believe in giving a weaker chick some special care. By letting the hen hatch her own eggs in ideal circumstances (the middle of June in her own pen) I proved to myself that it was in her genetics, she was an excellent mother as I then later had her hatch eggs from another hen and she hatched 9 out of 10 eggs and raised all the chicks. I did not hatch this hen myself but had gotten her from a breeder. Some time later I mentioned this problem to him and found out that he had been having this problem in his flock and had done absolutely everything possible to keep every chick alive that he hatched and in doing so he had encouraged the weak ones to live and breed. So to me that seemed to prove that although this certain hen was strong, she was able to pass the weak genes along to her chicks. Later in the year I bred her to a different rooster and got the same results, so I had to eat her. I was not about to let anyone else use her for breeding as I didn't want these genes to get passed on.
I've hatched a lot of chicks and it's still not easy to put them down, even after I've done these things for 20+ years.
 
troyer said:
Quote:
hugs.gif
you worded that very well, and I agree that if you are gonna hatch, pass on the genes for the strong not the weak.........I am always hesitant to tell a newbie to let the chick go, it is for the best.
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troyer said:
Sorry. I have found these types of things to be a part of hatching my own eggs. What I will do is keep a record of which hen laid the egg and if it happens again from the same hen I either won't hatch any more from her or cull her from my breeding program. I was having a bit of a problem with that last year and tracked it down to one hen. I quit using her eggs for incubator hatching, but I decided to let her hatch her own eggs to see if that would make a difference. She laid 12 eggs and turned broody, she hatched 10 chicks out of those 12 eggs. Six of the chicks that hatched had unabsorbed yolk sacs, 3 others were very weak and lived less than 24 hours and the last one lived only 6 days. I don't necessarily coddle my chicks, but I do believe in giving a weaker chick some special care. By letting the hen hatch her own eggs in ideal circumstances (the middle of June in her own pen) I proved to myself that it was in her genetics, she was an excellent mother as I then later had her hatch eggs from another hen and she hatched 9 out of 10 eggs and raised all the chicks. I did not hatch this hen myself but had gotten her from a breeder. Some time later I mentioned this problem to him and found out that he had been having this problem in his flock and had done absolutely everything possible to keep every chick alive that he hatched and in doing so he had encouraged the weak ones to live and breed. So to me that seemed to prove that although this certain hen was strong, she was able to pass the weak genes along to her chicks. Later in the year I bred her to a different rooster and got the same results, so I had to eat her. I was not about to let anyone else use her for breeding as I didn't want these genes to get passed on.
I've hatched a lot of chicks and it's still not easy to put them down, even after I've done these things for 20+ years.
Click to expand...

wingstone said:
hugs.gif
you worded that very well, and I agree that if you are gonna hatch, pass on the genes for the strong not the weak.........I am always hesitant to tell a newbie to let the chick go, it is for the best.
Click to expand...
I agree with both of you. As much as I love the chicks, I do not want a weak or sick flock.

I do have a question for Troyer.... do you have separate pens for each hen, or how do you know which hen laid which egg? I only started raising chickens 3 1/2 years ago, so I am still learning so much.
 

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