August Hatch-A-Long

[jolenesdad]

Welp, My leghorn, Maran, and Black Australorp hatch was supposed to start on Friday, but it started yesterday and is still going, we had 20 eggs make it to lockdown, 8 have hatched, 5 leghorns and 3 Black Chicks, cant tell em apart lol. And we have 5 more currently unzipping, 2 wl, and 3 black chicks.

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

So to finish off the month I hatched my very first shipped eggs and other than rough handling and most of the air cells being saddled and detached I'm pleasantly surprised with my hatch! 7 of the 8 fertilized eggs hatched successfully! I did have a malpositioned chick that was completely upsidedown in the egg but it managed to pip without hitting any blood vessels thank goodness! I included an image of that chick as well in case anyone is curious. I opened the air cell so I was able to monitor progress in case I needed to step in but all went well! The hole on the pointy end is where the chick pipped.

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Awww, what little sweeties!!!! Congratulations on your great hatch of shipped eggs!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Hi. I had in August, 15 out of 22, on aug 4-6. 4 of which were clears. Of those, 5 serama and the rest Cemani. And the second aug hatch, was 18 out of 22!! Actually, it was 20 but I lost two chicks for the first time ever post hatch. That was a drag. Of those surviving, 6 are from my best show quality serama and the rest Cemani.
Good job everyone!
Let’s kick butt in September! Best wishes, Noelle Reagan and the crew at Native Colors Exotics!

Congratulations on a great hatch!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Welp, My leghorn, Maran, and Black Australorp hatch was supposed to start on Friday, but it started yesterday and is still going, we had 20 eggs make it to lockdown, 8 have hatched, 5 leghorns and 3 Black Chicks, cant tell em apart lol. And we have 5 more currently unzipping, 2 wl, and 3 black chicks.

Wow, sounds like it’s going so well!!!

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

It was bad, so bad. This was a proven broody but she's only hatched her own and I never tried sneaking babies to her. She seemed fine when I went to bed, she was pushing the chicks under her, but when I got up this morning she was in another box and the chicks were all very cold. Remarkably all 3 are still alive but it's really not looking good right now....I still had my incubator running to dry it out after sterilizing so it was already warm for them at least. They all have some blood on them and they're all laying still but breathing and occasionally peeping. I'm going to give them some time to warm up before trying to clean them and decide what to do. Worst experience yet.
I'm not even sure I can keep that hen anymore, I'm so heartbroken that this happened. I can't imagine what went wrong after I went to bed.

Oh no! I’m so sorry!!! I really hope that your chicks perk up and are okay!!!

 

[CluckNDoodle]

Oh no!!!!! Hopefully with them being together they were more traumatized then chilled. I’m so sorry what an awful morning.

How long had she been sitting and did you leave any eggs under her?

Poor mama, poor babies and poor @CluckNDoodle.

I’m a pretty ruthless culler to my personal flock, but as long as she was docile off the nesting situation and hatches babies from eggs she sits on, I’d probably want to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she is smarter than we expect. “Lady, these aren’t my babies...”

I’m super sorry you’ll be left with brooding babies you weren’t planning on, because I’m putting it out there that they’ll be okay.

She was sitting on fake eggs for about a month, so it definitely wasn't rushed.
She does accept eggs, even as they're hatching, and in my experience most hens accept eggs more readily than chicks...I think I just felt too confident since she's proven to be such a good Mom in the past.

I'm really beating myself but over this one. She attacked their legs and I'm not sure it's something I can fix, though they're all more lively after warming up, it still looks awful. I'm going to syringe feed them some nutridrench and montior for the day to see if this is something they can come back from. A few legs look almost purple...can chickens survive with a bum leg? Even if she had gone for wings or something I would feel like I could fix this...

 

[jolenesdad]

She was sitting on fake eggs for about a month, so it definitely wasn't rushed.
She does accept eggs, even as they're hatching, and in my experience most hens accept eggs more readily than chicks...I think I just felt too confident since she's proven to be such a good Mom in the past.

I'm really beating myself but over this one. She attacked their legs and I'm not sure it's something I can fix, though they're all more lively after warming up, it still looks awful. I'm going to syringe feed them some nutridrench and montior for the day to see if this is something they can come back from. A few legs look almost purple...can chickens survive with a bum leg? Even if she had gone for wings or something I would feel like I could fix this...

I mean.... the answer is probably chickens can survive most anything.

I feel like any issue as a chick is the easiest to handle. My gut reaction without seeing them is splints, feeling their young bodies can rebuild pretty quickly. Look at splayed leg cases!

I’m so so sorry! I was just asking questions for my own knowledge, I have obviously zero thoughts or experience but am sending big big hugs.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I mean.... the answer is probably chickens can survive most anything.

I feel like any issue as a chick is the easiest to handle. My gut reaction without seeing them is splints, feeling their young bodies can rebuild pretty quickly. Look at splayed leg cases!

I’m so so sorry! I was just asking questions for my own knowledge, I have obviously zero thoughts or experience but am sending big big hugs.

I'm leaning toward the same and will probably try to splint the chick with the leg that is staying out to the side. I can just tell they're hurting because the cheeps are different when I pick them up. I'll do my best, time will tell but this timing couldn't be much worse with a hurricane heading this direction...

And you're always welcome to ask questions. That's why we're all here, to learn from each other's experiences. The good and the bad. It's just hard when it's the bad.

I can't really say what I could have done differently, other than I should have gone back out again. I only checked once after about 15-20 minutes. Big mistake on my part because with every other broody I've checked at least a few times whether they were proven or not. I would likely have been able to avoid it being this extreme, that's on me. Lesson learned the hard way...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

She was sitting on fake eggs for about a month, so it definitely wasn't rushed.
She does accept eggs, even as they're hatching, and in my experience most hens accept eggs more readily than chicks...I think I just felt too confident since she's proven to be such a good Mom in the past.

I'm really beating myself but over this one. She attacked their legs and I'm not sure it's something I can fix, though they're all more lively after warming up, it still looks awful. I'm going to syringe feed them some nutridrench and montior for the day to see if this is something they can come back from. A few legs look almost purple...can chickens survive with a bum leg? Even if she had gone for wings or something I would feel like I could fix this...

I’m so sorry CluckNDoodle!!!! If there is still blood supply, nerves and tendons intact then they will be able to heal. You know that chickens are amazingly resilient. Can you post pictures of the injuries? I would flush the legs well with a dilute chlorhexadine solution (the nolvasan that you or Joleneadad recommended for navel dipping). It should be about 1:40 dilute, or dilute until pale blue, to prevent infection.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I’m so sorry CluckNDoodle!!!! If there is still blood supply, nerves and tendons intact then they will be able to heal. You know that chickens are amazingly resilient. Can you post pictures of the injuries? I would flush the legs well with a dilute chlorhexadine solution (the nolvasan that you or Joleneadad recommended for navel dipping). It should be about 1:40 dilute, or dilute until pale blue, to prevent infection.

I have started to slowly treat them now that they're warm...things are not looking good. This is an image of Chick #1, I feel she has the best chance of recovery...

I put a splint on her as it was the only one splaying and may actually be more damage to her hip than the leg itself. Her injury is primarily bruising. Chick #2, also with a bad leg I feel I will have to cull. The leg is almost black and limp but I will wait a little while... Chick #3 is the least responsive and navel was pecked but the legs appear to be ok.

I was bound to have a genuine broody horror story eventually with as many broody hens as I've had. My first broody experience was actually really bad as well but I decided it was primarily due to inexperience, this was from getting too comfortable from having plenty of experience. Each is an opportunity for learning. I just don't like that the learning experience was at the cost of these innocent little peeps.