Advice on incubated egg - is it viable?

[VlkStinu]

Just my 2 cents, lol; I’ve had multiple groups of different aged chicks in the same brooder. I find it’s much easier to incorporate them all when they’re only a week or 2 apart. Any older or a larger age gap and the bigger ones don’t seem to get it and pick on the littler ones. However, I did successfully have a 4 week old, 2x 2 week olds, and days olds in the same brooder with absolutely no issues. I think because the oldest had already had little chicks introduced to her when she was a couple weeks old, she didn’t care much when the tiniest ones came in - she had already experienced the same thing before.
They weren’t in the space she wanted under the heating pad, since they went to the back where it’s lowest, they’re not up in the food dish in her way, etc. It actually became a good thing because once the littles started coming out more, when they got startled they would run to the bigger chick and tuck themselves up against her. I’m sure individual personalities make a difference but my experience has been that if you introduce day olds to week olds, they seem to be ok. Ducklings on the other hand, not so much.

Awesome, thanks a lot for sharing your experience - that is quite encouraging! I will aim to find a week old chick at least (if I can't find younger) and if it won't be possible, I will try around 2 weeks old.

Also I was thinking - what if the chick grows at first alone, say for the first 2 weeks and then I would find say 2-3 weeks old chick? Wouldn't that work as well? Because that might be a bit easier, as I would have more time to search for chicks and more opportunities would pop up (people usually start selling chicks when they are a bit older, at least here).

 

[Trisseh]

Definitely if you can find one closer in age that’s best; you may just have a very lonely chick for those couple of weeks though. Some do ok with a fuzzy toy to snuggle with or a mirror but definitely the best thing is another chick (or 2!). my lone duckling wound up being alone for 3 weeks before I was able to put him with the other ducks, because no one had ducklings at the time, and he is definitely not well adjusted. Lol. He’s figured it out now but it took a long time for him to be a duck.

 

[ladybrasa]

I don’t really know what the window of socialization is for a chick/chicken. You know, like a critical period. In nature and in most artificial settings, there is always another chicken around, whether it is another same age-ish chick or momma chicken. And they grow so fast. I would think it’s pretty critical for social development but I don’t really know. Of course it is possible to raise just one, but sounds like it might be a little harder later on to integrate with other chickens.

 

[VlkStinu]

Definitely if you can find one closer in age that’s best; you may just have a very lonely chick for those couple of weeks though. Some do ok with a fuzzy toy to snuggle with or a mirror but definitely the best thing is another chick (or 2!). my lone duckling wound up being alone for 3 weeks before I was able to put him with the other ducks, because no one had ducklings at the time, and he is definitely not well adjusted. Lol. He’s figured it out now but it took a long time for him to be a duck.

As I've mentioned, I am at home 24/7 and have plenty of free time every now and then (advantage of a purely IT job ), so I would try to keep the chick company as much as I can, but of course it's not like a company of another of its own species. So my goal would be to find that buddy chick as soon as possible, but these might be one of the possibilities as well.

 

[ladybrasa]

Oh, just another observation. Not really close to a home situation, but I’ve seen plenty times chicks from day olds to ones I know are at least two weeks get mixed together at Tractor Supply (Farm supply store that sells chicks). Of course they are high volume, high stress, high turnover situations, but every time I look (and that’s a lot!) the mixed bins seem to be getting on fine together.

 

[VlkStinu]

Oh, just another observation. Not really close to a home situation, but I’ve seen plenty times chicks from day olds to ones I know are at least two weeks get mixed together at Tractor Supply (Farm supply store that sells chicks). Of course they are high volume, high stress, high turnover situations, but every time I look (and that’s a lot!) the mixed bins seem to be getting on fine together.

Thank you, that's encouraging! I am sure it will all work out.

 

[VlkStinu]

Hi everyone - I promised to give an update to you: so about an hour back, the 21st day since I've set the eggs in the incubator officially ended and so far I am not seeing any sign of cracks or holes on the shell. I know that by this time, there should be signs of hatching (or of a pip at least), but at the same time, I've read that this doesn't have to always be the case and that one should wait for at least until 25th day as some chicks just hatch much later (or some even sooner). I was candling the egg on the 17th day just before putting the egg on lockdown and there has been positive movement and everything seemed fine. So that is what's happening so far.

 

[MGG]

Hi everyone - I promised to give an update to you: so about an hour back, the 21st day since I've set the eggs in the incubator officially ended and so far I am not seeing any sign of cracks or holes on the shell. I know that by this time, there should be signs of hatching (or of a pip at least), but at the same time, I've read that this doesn't have to always be the case and that one should wait for at least until 25th day as some chicks just hatch much later (or some even sooner). I was candling the egg on the 17th day just before putting the egg on lockdown and there has been positive movement and everything seemed fine. So that is what's happening so far.

You can candle it real quick and look for an internal pip. I'm glad it's still alive though! Thank you for the update!

 

[VlkStinu]

You can candle it real quick and look for an internal pip. I'm glad it's still alive though! Thank you for the update!

I can? I was actually thinking about doing that today... So I will try in the evening once it's dark, thanks!

 

[MGG]

I can? I was actually thinking about doing that today... So I will try in the evening once it's dark, thanks!

Yep, as long as there's no external pips and as long as you don't have it out too long. Let us know how it looks!