First time hatching new question on post 6

[Whitney13]

Okay a neighbor accidentally bushhogged one of his broody hens this morning and she was setting on 13 eggs. He gave me all the eggs since I already had my incubator set up. The first egg hatched and I was wondering how long I should leave the chick in the incubator?
Also, how quickly do I need to start giving them chick starter?
Thanks for all the help,
Whitney

 

[TerriLaChicks]

I got this from the sticky topics above:

BABY CHICKS!
Once the baby chicks are out of their shell, try to not handle them to much in the first few hours.
Let them dry completely before removing them from the incuabtor. Then place them in a brooder
or box with a light above them to keep them warm.
You want to make sure that the baby chicks stay DRY and WARM! This is very important as the
baby chicks need to be dry and stay warm to survive their first hours. I always keep my baby
chicks under a light for at least 2 weeks to insure the healthiest baby chicks!
Give the baby chicks feed and water as soon as you move them out of the incubator as they will
start eating and drinking right away. Just make sure you dont put a water that is oversized for
baby chicks as they will sometimes get in the water and drown. I prefer the smaller jars and the
plastic screw on tops that are actually made for the baby chicks because they have small
openings.

Author: Darlene Douglas


I've left chicks in the bator for up to 24 hours, while the rest were hatching, until they were nice & dry & fluffy. It won't hurt them to stay in there. They are still absorbing yolk from inside the egg they hatched out of.

 

[Kedreeva]

You can leave them in the incubator for around 48 hours, typically. You can give them starter as soon as they are out... my chicks always tell me they are STARVING when they get out and they are into the food before they can even walk around properly.

 

[pgpoultry]

I agree, though chicks are supposed to be fine for 48 hours after hatching, mine always seem to want a pile of chick crumb!

Sandie

 

[gamechickens]

i took mine out once they are dry about 24 hr or so. leaveing chicks in the incubator making tons of noise and kicking everyone around i heard helps the other hatch fast. i think it true at least from what i can tell with my hatches.

 

[Whitney13]

Thanks everyone!
Another question, Is the chick okay because it keeps falling over backwards and can't seem to get back on his feet for a couple hours? I want to help him get back on his stomach but I'm not supposed to open the lid, so is this normal or is he sick?

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Quote:
I wish I had an answer for you on this; hopefully someone w/more experience will chime in-- I think I would leave it alone until tomorrow morning & see how it is then. If it is continually "flipping" backwards, that doesn't sound normal. If it's still wet, it may just be struggling to get it's balance. If it's dry & fluffy & still flipping backwards, I would take that as a bad sign of something bad wrong.

I have very very quickly lifted the lid & plucked one out that was having problems & did what I could to save it, but that's just me. I mean I moved like lightning to get it out of there. I can't honestly say if it hurt the chances of the others in there or not. I can only think that, when then hen is hatching them, -- she isn't in perfect temps either, and things happen then, too, right? So, I guess it's a moot point.

So I guess I didn't answer your question, but I gave you my honest opinion. Let me know what you did & what happened, please, so I know for my own future experience. Which is what this forum is all about.

 

[Whitney13]

I couldn't stand it anymore so about 15 minutes ago I reached in real quick and flipped him over. The humidity was at 73 and now it is down to 65 so I am still safe. He is still mostly wet, his head is the only part that is dry. In the past 15 minutes he has wobbled all over the incubater but he stayed right side up. He finally proped himself up between two unhatched eggs and went to sleep. I guess we will just see what morning brings.

 

[Whitney13]

Update:
I think he has splay legs. He can't stand up and one of his legs sticks out beside him.

I put him in my regular brooder this morning and he wasn't able to get around on the paper towels or the pine shavings so I got out one of my old bird cages and cleaned it up. It has small bars with quarter inch spaces inbetween the bars. He is able to get around by holding on to one bar with one foot and putting the bad leg in between the bars to the bottom of the cage and "steps" to the next bar. It is really funny to watch but he can get around now. He couldn't reach his water or food in the normal containers because he can't stand up so I have had to improvise. Here is a picture of him drinking. You can see how he uses the bars to keep his balance. He stood up in his food for the first time today too

but he fell after about 2 seconds. I jumped up and went and told everyone and they thought I had gone crazy because I was excited that my chicken actually stood up on his own. They aren't chicken people so they don't get it.

I also named him too. His name is Chaos since that is all he has caused since he was born.

He is a jelous chick too. I started petting the dog after I put him back in his cage and he started yelling and chirping until I stopped touching the dog. The dog won't go anywhere near him either, poor Ozzy don't know what to think about this loud fuzzy ball.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

You can fix splay leg:

http://www.poultryhelp.com/spraddle.html