First hatch EVER ... now a few Q's...

[spuetz07]

I hatched my first egg!! Wow, exciting, but not I have a couple questions about the little guy... it's only been a few hours since the big hatch.

1. There is a stringy mucus looking strand hanging out of his "back end." Is that normal, is it bad?

2. Ive been waiting for him to dry off for hours. I checked him again. He appears to look wet, but when I touched him, his feathers were crusty. Any ideas here??

3. How long will it take for him to walk? He kind of limps around the incubator around the other eggs. He gets around, but falls a lot, and his toes are still curled.

A pretty squeaky little thing!! Any advice/information would be greatly appreciated!!

Sarah

 

[joe17]

1.) The stringy mucus is actual the yolk. That is perfectly normal in my experience.
2.) It takes about 24 hours for a chick to dry off or longer.
3.) He will learn to walk in a few hours. Other bycers will probably say the toes have something wrong with them. In MY experience, the deformed looking toes straighten when they learn to walk.
Ohhh and they YELL in the bator! Good luck with the rest of your hatch!!

 

[NakPakChick]

I'm in the middle of my first hatch too! I can see how this gets addicting!

I have 3 that hatched early early am (2 and 3 am) and have been fully dry since about noon. I personally have noticed that once I moved them to my warm brooder box they fluffed out like I was expecting. Perhaps it's the humidity inside the bator that keeps them from fluffing all the way?

My 9 all have stumbled around quite a bit, like little drunkards, but after a while get the hang of being uncurled and out of the shell. They just have to get their "sea legs". I have no idea about the toes, I'd say just keep an eye on him.

Good Luck!!