- Mar 27, 2014
- 12
- 0
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Hello,
On the 4th of March, we placed 15 eggs in an incubator. This is our very first time using an incubator or even hatching chicken eggs, so when I was assigned the job of manually turning the eggs, I felt pretty worried. When 21 days passed, I was feeling discouraged since I saw no pips (is that what they're called? New vocabulary here, haha). But on the 26th, I saw a small crack in one of the eggs and pretty much jumped in elation! I was so happy! I even caught them popping out of the egg on camera!
Anyway, a few hours after they hatched, we placed the chick (named Cleo) into its new home: a large tub, with a heat lamp on top of it. This tub was also used for our first chicks (that were bought from a store), but my father cleaned it and placed these little wood flakes (not sure what they're called) and set water and food for Cleo to use.
And, well, Cleo's eating. But I don't know if Cleo's drinking. But when Cleo isn't eating, chirping, or running around, Cleo crawls into the corner of the feeder and rests there. My mother says Cleo just misses their egg shell around them, but I'm asking just in case... does this mean Cleo is cold? Or does this mean Cleo is hot? The feeder is sort of under shade, after all.
Going back to the incubator. On the same day Cleo hatched, I saw another pip (?) on an egg. Unlike Cleo's seemingly vertical crack, this egg had a circular hole. We predicted the egg to hatch at 23:00, but it didn't, so we assumed it would hatch overnight. After all, it was already chirping loudly and wiggling all over. But when I woke up for school, the egg still hasn't hatched. That made us raise some eyebrows, but my parents decided to wait a little longer.
When I came home from school, TWO chicks were in the incubator. One was the chick with the circular hole egg and the other one... well, the other was pretty much a speed hatcher and popped out during the 8 hours I was at school.
My mother told me she assisted in hatching the egg with the circular hole. She said the membrane was drying and the chick's feathers were stuck to the shell. I was really worried about that - should she had intervened? She said she only cracked a little off and not the entire egg, but I'm still unsure. And to make things more worrying, the chick was on their back, and when I tried to turn them over, they started to wiggle/thrash, and when that was over, they were on their back again.
My mother suspects it to be linked to the chick's difficult hatching, and me? Well, I'm not sure. I researched a lot about it and I saw a lot about splayed legs and stargazing and wry neck but I don't think it's any of those. Then I read that some breeds actually did lay on their back, and it was normal.
Well, I suspect my chicks to either be a pure silkie or a pekin-silkie cross. Are either of those breeds known for laying on their back after hatching?
I was going to add pictures too, but when I went down there, the chick was off their back and looking like the other chick (who was running around the entire time) so I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Apologies for the long post! And any help would be much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!
EDIT: Just now I saw an egg with a dark blotch. It looks like it's through the shell of the egg, and there isn't any cracks or anything. It's decently sized, maybe about the size of a hole in a sheet of notebook paper (sorta smaller, maybe?).
And, about the chick on their back, they're actually doing pretty good. They're eating and drinking on the first day, and can preen themselves now. I think that's good, right? ^^
On the 4th of March, we placed 15 eggs in an incubator. This is our very first time using an incubator or even hatching chicken eggs, so when I was assigned the job of manually turning the eggs, I felt pretty worried. When 21 days passed, I was feeling discouraged since I saw no pips (is that what they're called? New vocabulary here, haha). But on the 26th, I saw a small crack in one of the eggs and pretty much jumped in elation! I was so happy! I even caught them popping out of the egg on camera!
Anyway, a few hours after they hatched, we placed the chick (named Cleo) into its new home: a large tub, with a heat lamp on top of it. This tub was also used for our first chicks (that were bought from a store), but my father cleaned it and placed these little wood flakes (not sure what they're called) and set water and food for Cleo to use.
And, well, Cleo's eating. But I don't know if Cleo's drinking. But when Cleo isn't eating, chirping, or running around, Cleo crawls into the corner of the feeder and rests there. My mother says Cleo just misses their egg shell around them, but I'm asking just in case... does this mean Cleo is cold? Or does this mean Cleo is hot? The feeder is sort of under shade, after all.
Going back to the incubator. On the same day Cleo hatched, I saw another pip (?) on an egg. Unlike Cleo's seemingly vertical crack, this egg had a circular hole. We predicted the egg to hatch at 23:00, but it didn't, so we assumed it would hatch overnight. After all, it was already chirping loudly and wiggling all over. But when I woke up for school, the egg still hasn't hatched. That made us raise some eyebrows, but my parents decided to wait a little longer.
When I came home from school, TWO chicks were in the incubator. One was the chick with the circular hole egg and the other one... well, the other was pretty much a speed hatcher and popped out during the 8 hours I was at school.
My mother told me she assisted in hatching the egg with the circular hole. She said the membrane was drying and the chick's feathers were stuck to the shell. I was really worried about that - should she had intervened? She said she only cracked a little off and not the entire egg, but I'm still unsure. And to make things more worrying, the chick was on their back, and when I tried to turn them over, they started to wiggle/thrash, and when that was over, they were on their back again.
My mother suspects it to be linked to the chick's difficult hatching, and me? Well, I'm not sure. I researched a lot about it and I saw a lot about splayed legs and stargazing and wry neck but I don't think it's any of those. Then I read that some breeds actually did lay on their back, and it was normal.
Well, I suspect my chicks to either be a pure silkie or a pekin-silkie cross. Are either of those breeds known for laying on their back after hatching?
I was going to add pictures too, but when I went down there, the chick was off their back and looking like the other chick (who was running around the entire time) so I'm not quite sure what to make of it.
Apologies for the long post! And any help would be much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!
EDIT: Just now I saw an egg with a dark blotch. It looks like it's through the shell of the egg, and there isn't any cracks or anything. It's decently sized, maybe about the size of a hole in a sheet of notebook paper (sorta smaller, maybe?).
And, about the chick on their back, they're actually doing pretty good. They're eating and drinking on the first day, and can preen themselves now. I think that's good, right? ^^
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