Offshoreorca
Whale Whisperer
It's been an eventful past 12 hours, but I thought I would share what I have learned with you. Now, I will add a disclaimer that I am a marine biologist who comes from a family of veterinarians, so this is definitely not my first exposure to assisted hatching.
I had two Day 21ish eggs in the coop under my broody silkie - my "second incubator". I had cleaned my sole incubator and put in my Marans eggs as they were sold to me older than I would have liked. Around noon, I went out to check on the eggs and noticed that several of the other hens had decided they wanted to nest with the broody silkie. To my horror, I saw that one of the eggs that was to hatch lay crushed beneath the pile. Pretty solidly crushed, blood oozing through the shell fragments - the whole nine. I thought it was a write off for sure, so close to beginning to hatch, yet with the veins still bold and red in the membrane. Regardless, I rushed it inside, stemmed the bleeding as best I could with some flour (what I had on had - and the white stuff in the image) and tucked it underneath the running Titan brooder cradled in some paper towel and in its own bowl to keep the other chicks away. It hadn't even internally pipped yet and I felt devastated.
It's still alive and peeping eleven hours later. I internally pipped it when I brought it in as I could see it was ready to do so. My technique has involved moistening the membrane every half hour and monitoring it closely without fiddling with the chick too much. Still not out of the woods yet, but the absorption of yolk and veins has been progressing well and the chick is getting more active. Still a few hours to go yet I figure - it will be a long night. I know we have good strong and healthy chicks coming from our flock, but this little one seems extremely determined to make it! One more and it will be a full house with all ten viable eggs making it through to hatching
It's amazing how hardy these little guys can be!
I had two Day 21ish eggs in the coop under my broody silkie - my "second incubator". I had cleaned my sole incubator and put in my Marans eggs as they were sold to me older than I would have liked. Around noon, I went out to check on the eggs and noticed that several of the other hens had decided they wanted to nest with the broody silkie. To my horror, I saw that one of the eggs that was to hatch lay crushed beneath the pile. Pretty solidly crushed, blood oozing through the shell fragments - the whole nine. I thought it was a write off for sure, so close to beginning to hatch, yet with the veins still bold and red in the membrane. Regardless, I rushed it inside, stemmed the bleeding as best I could with some flour (what I had on had - and the white stuff in the image) and tucked it underneath the running Titan brooder cradled in some paper towel and in its own bowl to keep the other chicks away. It hadn't even internally pipped yet and I felt devastated.
It's still alive and peeping eleven hours later. I internally pipped it when I brought it in as I could see it was ready to do so. My technique has involved moistening the membrane every half hour and monitoring it closely without fiddling with the chick too much. Still not out of the woods yet, but the absorption of yolk and veins has been progressing well and the chick is getting more active. Still a few hours to go yet I figure - it will be a long night. I know we have good strong and healthy chicks coming from our flock, but this little one seems extremely determined to make it! One more and it will be a full house with all ten viable eggs making it through to hatching
It's amazing how hardy these little guys can be!
That was two days ago, and last I checked it was still alive.
for you!
