Devastated 4 year old

[EnnieM]

My 4 year old, with his own money earned doing chores at our dairy farm, purchased his first hatching eggs. (I originally accidentally bought them while half asleep. He overheard me saying I was calling to cancel, but he wanted to “buy” them from me.) $114 for eggs, $200 for incubators. After candling today, only FOURTY of the 96 eggs received have any development. A few are iffy, but I left them to check at the next candling. He candles with me and was trying his hardest to hold back tears by the time we were done. Being farmers, he’s very educated in death and I told him before they arrived that not every single egg would hatch. But each egg we put into the “bad” box, brought him closer and closer to breaking down. On top of that, his favorite Sussex chick (he named Spotto) died the other night. What do I do..? Buy him more chicks, replace the eggs he lost? He helps with absolutely everything involving the eggs and chicks, besides handling the eggs. We don’t have any laying hens yet, so I’d have to put us deeper in the hole by buying, but it just may be worth it.. thanks for reading.

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

I would get some chicks

 

[Uff Da]

Aw, this broke my heart. But 40 out of 96 isn't at all unexpected if they are shipped eggs. And 40 is still a lot of eggs to hatch! Even if even only half of the 40 hatch, he will still have many little fuzz butts to play with.

 

[Arenas Chickens]

I’d take him to pick up chicks as a mother with broke. Heart experience breaking down for a little bit of happiness is well worth it in the end. Hugs for you & your little guy.

I will be telling my 7 and 11 year old tomorrow that we lost 16 eggs ourselves while they were with dad. I’m fighting buying to

 

[Brahmachicken240]

That’s an awful pity. hopefully the 40 that are developing hatch.
sorry for your loss.

 

[Arenas Chickens]

Oh boy I was caught up in sad kid mother instinct I didn’t even think of the other incubating babies! I am sure there will be some beautiful ones there to help you guys through this!

 

[mdees88]

I'm sure I'll be in the minority here but I'll give my opinion anyway. I do not think you should buy more eggs or chicks just to make him feel better. Nothing ever works out perfectly, such is life. I mean you're probably going to hatch out 30+ chicks in another week or so. Can you not get him excited about that? He shouldn't be completely devastated that some of the eggs are not going to hatch, this is normal and shouldn't be surprising. Rarely ever do all eggs hatch when incubating large numbers of eggs, especially shipped eggs. Maybe you can try to better explain that to him. Why don't you explain that if they didn't show any development then they many of them likely were not viable eggs to begin with or lost their viability during the rough shipping process. I realize parents want to protect their kids and don't want them to have negative experiences, but I think it is more beneficial for him to be exposed to real life issues and learn how to cope with them than trying to offset his unwarranted level of devastation (not saying he shouldn't feel a little sad) with some kind of instant gratification. Just my $.02...

 

[Uff Da]

I'm sure I'll be in the minority here but I'll give my opinion anyway. I do not think you should buy more eggs or chicks just to make him feel better. Nothing ever works out perfectly, such is life. I mean you're probably going to hatch out 30+ chicks in another week or so. Can you not get him excited about that? He shouldn't be completely devastated that some of the eggs are not going to hatch, this is normal and shouldn't be surprising. Rarely ever do all eggs hatch when incubating large numbers of eggs, especially shipped eggs. Maybe you can try to better explain that to him. Why don't you explain that if they didn't show any development then they many of them likely were not viable eggs to begin with or lost their viability during the rough shipping process. I realize parents want to protect their kids and don't want them to have negative experiences, but I think it is more beneficial for him to be exposed to real life issues and learn how to cope with them than trying to offset his unwarranted level of devastation (not saying he shouldn't feel a little sad) with some kind of instant gratification. Just my $.02...

I agree.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

He's 4! He'll have a ton of disappointment in life, especially living on a dairy farm when no one seems to appreciate all of the 365 days a year working dairy farmer. Maybe a couple chicks bought at the farm store will distract him for a while until the others hatch. Much from another dairy girl.

 

[EnnieM]

I'm sure I'll be in the minority here but I'll give my opinion anyway. I do not think you should buy more eggs or chicks just to make him feel better. Nothing ever works out perfectly, such is life. I mean you're probably going to hatch out 30+ chicks in another week or so. Can you not get him excited about that? He shouldn't be completely devastated that some of the eggs are not going to hatch, this is normal and shouldn't be surprising. Rarely ever do all eggs hatch when incubating large numbers of eggs, especially shipped eggs. Maybe you can try to better explain that to him. Why don't you explain that if they didn't show any development then they many of them likely were not viable eggs to begin with or lost their viability during the rough shipping process. I realize parents want to protect their kids and don't want them to have negative experiences, but I think it is more beneficial for him to be exposed to real life issues and learn how to cope with them than trying to offset his unwarranted level of devastation (not saying he shouldn't feel a little sad) with some kind of instant gratification. Just my $.02...

He’s very content with the remaining, he’d even be happy if just 1 hatched. I guess I just had a “mom moment” of sadness for him.. no mom likes to see their baby with a broken heart. I’ve explained the entire process to him, shipped vs farm eggs, hatch rates, viability, etc but at 4 years old, he can only understand so much. In his eyes, at that age, regardless of education, that’s a huge loss. And I’m teaching him the value of money early on, so he knows how much he lost. But you’re right; he has to know that it won’t always work out, and focus on the ones we still have. Maybe after a few more hatches, he’ll get more “used to it.”