Baby chicks not moving in brooder!

[nsumchickens]

I have 3 chicks that hatched late last night. They were super active but struggling to move around the incubator because it was crowded with other eggs. A fourth baby really struggled to get out of the shell because of these three piling on top.

So I just moved them into the brooder and they haven't moved at all! They're all breathing but no other movement. I have them in a long aquarium with the heat lamp on just one side, and I put them in the middle so they could adjust if too warm or cold. I'm seriously worried though! Is this normal? It's been about 20 minutes.

 

[azygous]

What do they do when you pick them up and set them down again? Or are they unconscious?

It's an exhausting process getting out of an egg shell. Chicks will sleep most of the first 24 hours afterward. But they should respond when you touch them and wake them up. If they don't, they may have something serious wrong with them.

 

[nsumchickens]

What do they do when you pick them up and set them down again? Or are they unconscious?

It's an exhausting process getting out of an egg shell. Chicks will sleep most of the first 24 hours afterward. But they should respond when you touch them and wake them up. If they don't, they may have something serious wrong with them.

They are conscious and responsive to touch and sound. These guys hardly slept all night, they were falling all over each other and the other eggs. Just constantly moving. They put out a few shrill peeps at first when I put them in and since they've just been like this. One tried to stand a minute ago and it was like it couldn't.

 

[nsumchickens]

They all looked up at me when I tapped the glass and they just started scooting around a bit. But it almost seems like they can't stand. Maybe they're just exhausted?

 

[RosemaryDuck]

They all looked up at me when I tapped the glass and they just started scooting around a bit. But it almost seems like they can't stand. Maybe they're just exhausted?

I think it's highly likely they're just really, really tired. Chicks have to work extremely hard to get out of the egg (imagine tapping a wall in the same spot with your fingernail for 12 hours!). It's very tiring and they sleep a lot afterwards. Give them some time to recover. You can also provide hydro hen or chick electrolytes in their water to give them a boost.

 

[ladybrasa]

My guess is exhaustion and they still need to figure out how to walk, once they get the energy to do so. I’d keep a close eye on them though, because they might not have enough energy or coordination just yet to move to or away from the heat.

 

[ladybrasa]

Oh. In case it applies to you, I just encountered a situation in which two hatched chicks acted like their butts were full of lead. They could not stand and get their feet under them, and scooted around and rolled over a lot. It was distressing to them so I left them in the incubator for about 2 days. They improved over that time and are normal now. From what I could tell, their absorbed yolks must have been a lot or heavy and weighed them down!

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's been about 20 minutes.

Give them some time. The second photo doesn't look bad at all. For the first photo, sometimes when they go to sleep they relax so much you think they are dead. Man those look tired.

They absorb the yolk so they can live 72 hours or more without eating or drinking. They can eat and drink earlier than that but they don't have to. I try to interfere as little as I can. I'd expect them to be up running around in a few hours.

If by this time tomorrow they aren't very active you can use a medicine dropper and give them something to give them energy. You can get electrolytes or special solutions or you can just make sugar water. I use hummingbird liquid. The idea is to get some liquid in them to keep them dehydrated (they don't need that for three days but it wont hurt). The sugar gives them instant energy. I've used this to treat a grown hen and a few chicks that were lethargic. It usually perks them up.

Do not force liquid down the throat, you might drown it. Put a drop on the tip of its beak so it can swallow it. Then give it another drop. Personally I don't think you have any problems with them. It looks like they absorbed the yolk fine. They just need time.

Good luck with the rest of the hatch.

 

[West Bend]

Adorable! Makes me want more, but the city i live in would frown on that idea.

 

[Coops Dad]

The first time we hatched chicks, my wife was freaked out because they all lay on their tummies with their legs out straight behind them; she thought they were all dead. She kept on poking them or knocking on the side of the brooder to make sure they would move and indicate that the Grim Reaper hadn't stopped by for a chicken nugget snack.

She's an honorary country girl now and hasn't let the incubator take more than a week's break between hatches in the last 5 months. She loads it with "specially chosen" eggs from her favorite hens (even though they're all going to be black or gray because of the daddy's genetics), candles them, discards duds, moves the hatched chickies to the brooder, cleans the incubator and, shockingly, lets the chicks sleep. In the last 5 months, we've hatched a couple hundred chicks and only had 5 die (pretty sure of the number) between the hatch and the time they were either sold or integrated into the flock.