Clops: The Blind Cleft Lid Chick (Updates, Advice, and Discussion Thread)

[Building Bridges]

The hardest part about this whole thing for me is trying to listen to every opinion without allowing my emotions to control my response. Some think I'm wrong for keeping, some like that I'm trying, and some have dealt with it with success.

Every response I take a deep breath and try to respond as good as I can.

I do have other housing for it if my flock wants to pick on it but I'm not even to that stage. I'm only on the first 24 hours of it's life.

I'm trying to take this one day at a time and not think too far ahead.

Just remember the opinions are (for the most part) offered out of a sincere desire to be helpful. The benefit of posting things like this is to perhaps get suggestions or ideas that you might not have thought of yourself. If you didn't post it or get any opinions from others, you would have made your own decisions based upon your own experiences and you probably would have done well. Your desire to do THE BEST for the chick caused you to check yourself and allow others to weigh in. That's a good choice...but YOU are capable and must filter out the things that are not helpful and don't fit with your own philosophy. You are doing well....

 

[FortCluck]

Just remember the opinions are (for the most part) offered out of a sincere desire to be helpful. The benefit of posting things like this is to perhaps get suggestions or ideas that you might not have thought of yourself. If you didn't post it or get any opinions from others, you would have made your own decisions based upon your own experiences and you probably would have done well. Your desire to do THE BEST for the chick caused you to check yourself and allow others to weigh in. That's a good choice...but YOU are capable and must filter out the things that are not helpful and don't fit with your own philosophy. You are doing well....

Thank you...

I emailed the breeder this morning and let her know about the chick. I also let her know what I plan on doing in the future if things continue to go good or if they end up going bad as we progress.

The funny thing is that my husband told me that the chick hatching excitement is not there anymore because he has experienced several hatches... Guess who was the first one this morning to go check on that chick He even made sure that she got a drink of water. Someone seems to be attached to this chick and it's not me

 

[FortCluck]

An update on Clops... Somehow she is the most active chick out of everyone. She definitely has a lot better hearing than everyone else because she is always the first to hear me.

I need to increase their brooder size and clean out the brooder. I'm using sterile drapes as the flooring cover, I have an excess of them on hand so I figured I might as well use them.

 

[FortCluck]

@aart @FoodFreedomNow have you ever seen this? It's from the free eggs. Both eyes seem to be bulging, eyelids look weird to me, and looks to be blind in both or one eye.

Spoke with the breeder of Clops and they suggested maybe the eggs got too cold before they were collected. They didn't have their coop heaters on yet.

 

[FortCluck]

@jolenesdad have you ever seen a chick like this? Not Clops but the one up above

 

[jolenesdad]

Just seeing this independent thread on Clops and this newbie! Going to read through in just a little bit. I have not seen something just like the new one. But I did lots of research about chick eye issues when I had mine this summer, and, it's usually an issue of nutrition in the breeder flock, egg storage (cold/heat mostly), or incubation. You incubate enough of your own chicks to know that we can likely take the last one off. We probably won't really ever know the cause. I normally say I wouldn't order or hatch eggs outside of my own in August/January, but, I did both this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I see, sometimes, that you are getting a little overwhelmed and just wanted to offer thoughts, for whatever they're worth, to hopefully provide comfort in the midst of the stress. Chicken keeping is highly personal. Personal philosophies, personal beliefs about animals, livestock, food, etc. Most advice is based on anecdotal evidence. So many things about every aspect of chicken keeping change from person to person and environment to environment. Gather all the information that you can, and make informed decisions. Some will be right, some may not be, but you learn and improve and build more knowledge for your specific case of circumstances. You're doing great. Whatever you ultimately do will be what is best for your situation. I personally believe we are always right where we are supposed to be.

I have the hardest time culling chicks over anything else. Taking quality of life into play, and my own capacities for the rest of my responsibilities, I see absolutely no reason not to try and provide a life for one if you can make the accommodations work. I'd make a pretty horrible breeder with these sensibilities, so, I'll leave that to others. ;-)

I think I follow a blind chicken on FB. Are you on Facebook? Im going to see if I can find something outside of FB. I feel like I saw you say sometime you weren't on FB.

 

[aart]

Weird, another eye anomaly!
Kinda doubt is was from eggs getting too cold, wouldn't that just make them not develop at all, but maybe?

 

[FortCluck]

Weird, another eye anomaly!
Kinda doubt is was from eggs getting too cold, wouldn't that just make them not develop at all, but maybe?

When I did get the free eggs they were quite cold. I let them sit out for 24 hours because they felt like they were in a fridge Or maybe they were left in his vehicle while he was at work.

The eggs from the organic farm, it was very cold the day that I picked them up and they did tell me that they did not have their coop heaters on yet.

I'm just hoping that this isn't a disease that's going to wipe out everything that's in my yard

 

[FortCluck]

Just seeing this independent thread on Clops and this newbie! Going to read through in just a little bit. I have not seen something just like the new one. But I did lots of research about chick eye issues when I had mine this summer, and, it's usually an issue of nutrition in the breeder flock, egg storage (cold/heat mostly), or incubation. You incubate enough of your own chicks to know that we can likely take the last one off. We probably won't really ever know the cause. I normally say I wouldn't order or hatch eggs outside of my own in August/January, but, I did both this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I see, sometimes, that you are getting a little overwhelmed and just wanted to offer thoughts, for whatever they're worth, to hopefully provide comfort in the midst of the stress. Chicken keeping is highly personal. Personal philosophies, personal beliefs about animals, livestock, food, etc. Most advice is based on anecdotal evidence. So many things about every aspect of chicken keeping change from person to person and environment to environment. Gather all the information that you can, and make informed decisions. Some will be right, some may not be, but you learn and improve and build more knowledge for your specific case of circumstances. You're doing great. Whatever you ultimately do will be what is best for your situation. I personally believe we are always right where we are supposed to be.

I have the hardest time culling chicks over anything else. Taking quality of life into play, and my own capacities for the rest of my responsibilities, I see absolutely no reason not to try and provide a life for one if you can make the accommodations work. I'd make a pretty horrible breeder with these sensibilities, so, I'll leave that to others. ;-)

I think I follow a blind chicken on FB. Are you on Facebook? Im going to see if I can find something outside of FB. I feel like I saw you say sometime you weren't on FB.

Yeah I'm not on Facebook anymore I did have an account at one time, but my husband does have an account so I can have him look at it.

Right now both of them are doing good, but the thing that I am worried about is a disease being present that can wipe out my flock that I have. I have work so hard to get the flock that I have

Let it be known that this will be probably the last time that I hatch someone else's eggs. I'm stressed to the max, but there's nothing I can do.

I either cull them now... Wait to cull until they're older... Or keep them... Those are really the only three options that my family has at this point.

I did tell my husband that I was going to off the one with the bulging eyes and he told me not to I was seriously getting the knife ready.

 

[FortCluck]

Weird, another eye anomaly!
Kinda doubt is was from eggs getting too cold, wouldn't that just make them not develop at all, but maybe?

They are from two different farms too, but again it was not from my flock...

I'm honestly probably never going to hatch anyone else's eggs from here on out.

This has been heartbreaking and stressful. I barely slept last night thinking about if we made the right decision and now there's another one