Long depressing backstory: I had a bad first hatch last Monday. It turns out our ailing Wyandotte cockerel was infertile, and all but two out of the dozen eggs I sat happened to be Wyandottes. The two bantam Buckeye eggs that I had hatched, but they were weak from the start.
One had a splay leg, spending its life under the heat source. We had to move it to get to food and water.
The other was physically healthy, but it had little companionship in the cripple.
I found it dead. I do not know how it died. Maybe it choked on some food, maybe it died of loneliness or had some underlying issue. I don’t know. The cripple had to be put down out of mercy. It had been hoped that it would provide a companion for the healthy one, but it turned out to outlive it.
Long story short, my first hatch failed.
So lay an empty brooder. Which was okay, first hatches happen like that. We cleaned it eagerly, hopefully for the hatch of about 13 bantam Buckeyes on Wednesday the next week.
Tragedy struck. This Monday, we moved the bantam Buckeyes from the Brinsea to the Incuview we use as a hatcher and unplugged the Brinsea and it’s turner. About 12 hours later, in the morning, we discovered the Incuview was reading room temperature.
It had been unplugged instead of the turner.
12 hours.
It was okay to lose a first hatch, but a second?
DO NOT WORRY
I SAID IT FROM THE START
THIS IS A MESSAGE OF HOPE
I decided that the eggs would still hatch. I didn’t know how long it would take or if they would all end up splay legged, but I’d heard of stories like this before.
If the power goes out right before hatching, the chicks usually make it.
I decided they would still hatch. Impaired. Some dead. 12 hours later.
Wednesday morning:
Nothing. I had expected nothing.
Wednesday evening:
Nothing. I’ll admit. I’d been hopeful.
I thought there had to be life. I had to check for life.
I got candling. The first egg was hard to tell. Could be alive or dead. Second: same. Third: same. Fourth: alive. Internally pipped. Moving. I had life.
I set it back and closed the incubator, not wanting to disturb it.
This morning: pips. Pips and peeping. Finally, my waiting had brought a reward.
This afternoon: healthy babies! Everything properly hatching like nothing happened! Yay!
Moral of the story:
Don’t lose hope, even when everything seems to have fallen out. A miracle may be just waiting to show up. If there is a power outage, or you make a titanic mistake, don’t beat yourself up so hard.
I pray thanks for this miracle which had come upon me.
This is my message of hope.
One had a splay leg, spending its life under the heat source. We had to move it to get to food and water.
The other was physically healthy, but it had little companionship in the cripple.
I found it dead. I do not know how it died. Maybe it choked on some food, maybe it died of loneliness or had some underlying issue. I don’t know. The cripple had to be put down out of mercy. It had been hoped that it would provide a companion for the healthy one, but it turned out to outlive it.
Long story short, my first hatch failed.
So lay an empty brooder. Which was okay, first hatches happen like that. We cleaned it eagerly, hopefully for the hatch of about 13 bantam Buckeyes on Wednesday the next week.
Tragedy struck. This Monday, we moved the bantam Buckeyes from the Brinsea to the Incuview we use as a hatcher and unplugged the Brinsea and it’s turner. About 12 hours later, in the morning, we discovered the Incuview was reading room temperature.
It had been unplugged instead of the turner.
12 hours.
It was okay to lose a first hatch, but a second?
DO NOT WORRY
I SAID IT FROM THE START
THIS IS A MESSAGE OF HOPE
I decided that the eggs would still hatch. I didn’t know how long it would take or if they would all end up splay legged, but I’d heard of stories like this before.
If the power goes out right before hatching, the chicks usually make it.
I decided they would still hatch. Impaired. Some dead. 12 hours later.
Wednesday morning:
Nothing. I had expected nothing.
Wednesday evening:
Nothing. I’ll admit. I’d been hopeful.
I thought there had to be life. I had to check for life.
I got candling. The first egg was hard to tell. Could be alive or dead. Second: same. Third: same. Fourth: alive. Internally pipped. Moving. I had life.
I set it back and closed the incubator, not wanting to disturb it.
This morning: pips. Pips and peeping. Finally, my waiting had brought a reward.
This afternoon: healthy babies! Everything properly hatching like nothing happened! Yay!
Moral of the story:
Don’t lose hope, even when everything seems to have fallen out. A miracle may be just waiting to show up. If there is a power outage, or you make a titanic mistake, don’t beat yourself up so hard.
I pray thanks for this miracle which had come upon me.
This is my message of hope.
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