OrangeYouGlad
In the Brooder
- May 18, 2021
- 9
- 4
- 11
This is my first time with chicks/chickens. I incubated 22 eggs, 6 of which were Black Copper Marans that arrived through the mail. I knew this meant my hatch rate would be lower and/or the chicks would be more likely to have hatching difficulty. Of those, 5 hatched, but 1 was very weak and sadly had to be culled. Another had a malpositioned pip (I could tell it was a combined internal/external pip). After a while, the chick in that egg (that was previously chirping loudly) had stopped wiggling and the membrane turned brown and dried, so I very carefully peeled back a tiny bit of shell and stopped when I saw there was still blood. That chick hatched successfully maybe 8 hours later, although it did take a little time for what I think was the umbilical cord to separate from her abdomen. She was pulling a shell around with her for a bit. The umbilicus was more prominent than in other chicks after it separated, but she was happy and walking around and seemed just fine. Overall, we had 19 chicks hatch. My friend took 8 home with her, including two of the marans. At this point, all four of the marans appeared (and acted) indistinguishable, so I didn’t know which may have been the one with the malpositioned pip. My brooder setup includes an EcoGlow 600, and they are inside at a steady ~70 degrees. My friend has her brooder, with the same EcoGlow, in an unheated shed, and temperatures dipped to only 40-something at night. Sadly, my friend did not heed my advice about the height of the EcoGlow until after she discovered that the chicks were cold the next morning. One of the marans was barely responsive, but came back to life when exposed to heat. After that, though, the chick had a bit of a wobble. The next morning, my friend found the chick agonal breathing (the others were still okay in these temps). The chick stopped breathing, she thought, so she left the chick for dead outside in the sun and later heard chirping and came back and the chick was standing up. At this point we decided the chick needed to come to my climate-controlled brooder since the overnight drop in temps was obviously seriously problematic for this chick. So now, I have the chick. What I have noticed is that this chick is very wobbly on her feet, she chirps loudly and often as if she is upset, and is smaller than the other 3 maran chicks. She is drinking, and is eating as far as I can tell. I have added vitamins and minerals to the waterer, which already had probiotics in it. She survivied her first night here, without becoming unresponsive. Her condition appears unchanged. I think this chick is likely the one that had an unideal hatch, and the low temperatures (especially that very first night with the improper placement of the ecoglow) compounded the problem. Is there anything else I can do for this chick? Do you think she has a chance for recovery? I worry she suffered permanent brain damage after those two chills.
