Good morning, all! I have over 20 pages to catch up on, so before I do that I wanted to update ya'll.
We got snow and ice early last night, and with satellite internet, that means no signal. So that is why it has taken me so long.
I followed Ron's advice on the chick that hadn't absorbed its yolk yet, and who still had veins running along the inner membrane. I put it upright in an egg carton and left it be, except to use a qtip to moisten the membrane. After doing this every five minutes for an hour (cuz it would dry out in five minutes, even with the humidity above 80%), I decided to improvise. I didn't have any bacitracin, only neosporin with pain relief, so I couldn't use it. I took a square piece of sterile gauze and cut a hole in the middle. I wet it with warm water and draped it over the exposed membrane, being sure baby's beak was poking through the hole I made so it could breath.
This worked very well...the membrane stayed moist, and before I went to bed, I wet the gauze again. This morning my mom was up before me, and she told me when I got up that the membrane was dry...but not completely dry. So she wet it again. I checked under the gauze, and all the veins were gone. So I peeled the membrane about halfway down...and encountered a very small amount of bleeding, so I stopped. I noticed the membrane was pretty stuck to the chick, but didn't want to mess with it any more, so I draped damp gauze over it, put it back in the incubator, and left it be.
At 8:30, baby started wriggling like crazy, and 7 minutes later, she was out of the shell. Baby's bottom was stuck to the membrane, so I gently pulled it partially off and trimmed it...part of her umbilical? was sticking out of a tiny hole. Since I know nothing about the anatomy of a baby chick, I'm going to assume that this area...the vent?...is where the yolk gets pulled up into the body, and it seals itself off. The yolk was not visually present, so I believe the piece still hanging is the umbilical...but I could be wrong.
Baby didn't move around much after being born. Over the past few hours, she has been gaining her strength, and is now able to stand for a few seconds. She's peeping like crazy...she can hear the chicks in the brooder
...poor little one is lonely, I reckon! She isn't fully dry yet, so she's gotta stay in there until she is. I will see how much strength and energy she has once she's dry...don't want her not to be able to defend herself if the other five chicks decide to pick on her!!!
So, here's the final count for me.
I set 10 eggs on the 12th. The were either Barred Rock or Commercial Blacks (Hatchery BR cross) or both, fertilized by a Barred Rock cockerel.
2 were clears, 1 died around day 6, and another died at lockdown.
4 healthy chicks born on hatch day. 1 born with curled feet and toes (which, by the way, are COMPLETELY HEALED!!! Her sandals fell off, and her toes and feet are completely straight!!!
)
1 born today, with help from me.
That makes 6/10...60% hatch rate. Not bad for my first time!!!
My camera decided to take a crap, and only the "flower" setting works now (that's why in the pics I've been posting, the chicks are being lit up with a flashlight). So, I couldn't take pics of the chicks because the lighting in my house is too dim, and it's really hard to take pics of active chicks (not in an incubator) with a flashlight in one hand, camera in the other. So today I took them out one by one, and sat them in sunlight...still not the best pics, but at least they aren't blurry and you can actually SEE them!
We got snow and ice early last night, and with satellite internet, that means no signal. So that is why it has taken me so long.
I followed Ron's advice on the chick that hadn't absorbed its yolk yet, and who still had veins running along the inner membrane. I put it upright in an egg carton and left it be, except to use a qtip to moisten the membrane. After doing this every five minutes for an hour (cuz it would dry out in five minutes, even with the humidity above 80%), I decided to improvise. I didn't have any bacitracin, only neosporin with pain relief, so I couldn't use it. I took a square piece of sterile gauze and cut a hole in the middle. I wet it with warm water and draped it over the exposed membrane, being sure baby's beak was poking through the hole I made so it could breath.
This worked very well...the membrane stayed moist, and before I went to bed, I wet the gauze again. This morning my mom was up before me, and she told me when I got up that the membrane was dry...but not completely dry. So she wet it again. I checked under the gauze, and all the veins were gone. So I peeled the membrane about halfway down...and encountered a very small amount of bleeding, so I stopped. I noticed the membrane was pretty stuck to the chick, but didn't want to mess with it any more, so I draped damp gauze over it, put it back in the incubator, and left it be.
At 8:30, baby started wriggling like crazy, and 7 minutes later, she was out of the shell. Baby's bottom was stuck to the membrane, so I gently pulled it partially off and trimmed it...part of her umbilical? was sticking out of a tiny hole. Since I know nothing about the anatomy of a baby chick, I'm going to assume that this area...the vent?...is where the yolk gets pulled up into the body, and it seals itself off. The yolk was not visually present, so I believe the piece still hanging is the umbilical...but I could be wrong.
Baby didn't move around much after being born. Over the past few hours, she has been gaining her strength, and is now able to stand for a few seconds. She's peeping like crazy...she can hear the chicks in the brooder
So, here's the final count for me.
I set 10 eggs on the 12th. The were either Barred Rock or Commercial Blacks (Hatchery BR cross) or both, fertilized by a Barred Rock cockerel.
2 were clears, 1 died around day 6, and another died at lockdown.
4 healthy chicks born on hatch day. 1 born with curled feet and toes (which, by the way, are COMPLETELY HEALED!!! Her sandals fell off, and her toes and feet are completely straight!!!
1 born today, with help from me.
That makes 6/10...60% hatch rate. Not bad for my first time!!!
My camera decided to take a crap, and only the "flower" setting works now (that's why in the pics I've been posting, the chicks are being lit up with a flashlight). So, I couldn't take pics of the chicks because the lighting in my house is too dim, and it's really hard to take pics of active chicks (not in an incubator) with a flashlight in one hand, camera in the other. So today I took them out one by one, and sat them in sunlight...still not the best pics, but at least they aren't blurry and you can actually SEE them!
