"Hatch a Long" Setting eggs June 7th

[emorems0]

We had one hatch early on Friday, then 3 on Saturday and 3 more yesterday. I think that's all we're going to get from our 12 eggs. 4 of them were questionable at lockdown, so there is really only one that didn't hatch (and it was probably questionable at lockdown too, but I didn't want to mark it bc it was my 6yo's 'special' egg). Thankfully she is enjoying the other chicks so much that she isn't too upset that her special egg didn't hatch, I think I'll toss the rest quietly tonight after the kids go to bed.

I shared these pics elsewhere already, but here are a few of our cuties

 

[Angiebubs]

awww Adorable chicks and kids!!! So you had over 50% hatch rate-that's pretty good! We started with 31 eggs...I think we ended up with 5-6 that weren't fertile, 2 that died during hatch (early Friday before I had checked on them). Of the 14, we have 2 that are iffy...both seem to have issues with their feet. One was very weak this morning and out from under the mom. The other is active and looks good but legs/feet aren't normal. I am hoping these will improve. I will try to post some pics this evening.

 

[emorems0]

Well, we originally started with 23 eggs! But one was cracked, and at least 3-4 weren't fertilized. We had several detached air sacs that quit early, and a couple late quitters. 12 made it to lockdown, but 4 were questionable... so 8 really should have made it to lockdown and we hatched 7. They all look healthy, but two have slightly curled toes, one of those might have a splayed leg - need to research that a little more.

All in all, considering that 16 of the eggs were shipped and most of those had wobbly air cells when they arrived, the other 7 eggs sat for almost 2 weeks at room temp (didn't realize I should have stored them in cooler temps while waiting for the shipped eggs), and the temp issues we had with the incubator, I think we did pretty well for a first ever hatch.

 

[Angiebubs]

Oops Type we had 16 and one didn't make it this morning (had legs issues and was weak) We now have 15....two of which I am still unsure of. One just seems weak and isn't eating with the others yet and the other seems to have leg issues-its alert and active but not eating and hobbles around

 

[emorems0]

I'm concerned about two of ours too... both day 22 hatchers. One has slightly curled toes and slightly splayed legs (does stand up properly sometimes, but doesn't run around like the others and wasn't eating), the other just seems to lay around a lot and I haven't seen it eating - looks fine other than being a little wobbly when it walks around (but can't see any problems with legs/feet). I've been trying to hand-feed them some Sav-a-Chick electrolyte water and also put a bandaid 'hobble' and chick shoes on the one with the foot problems. Hope they pull through (yours and mine!)!

 

[Angiebubs]

ems: Awww same here! I lost the lavender chick yesterday afternoon that seemed so weak. It was very weak, heard it make a squeak/squeal looked in to see it fall over and die :-( I picked it up and nasty smell liquid came out of its mouth after it died...so not sure what that was about. It sure seemed thirsty too. So the two that died were both ones that were pipped for a long time and struggled to hatch.

My one last one with the leg/feet issue seems to manage to flop around enough to get where she needs to go. Another forum on here suggested making the lil booties for her feet. This particular chick was left in the nest box (hatched later than the others and mom was outside the box with the older ones) and was chilled-wonder if that had anything to do with it? it's interesting-it sounds like both of us that had issues, it was with the chicks that hatched late? Hmmmmm

 

[emorems0]

I made the little chick shoes for my curled toed/splayed leg chick last night and she had a really hard time with them, they are big and cumbersome and her legs are so weak (from not running around like the others), she mostly would try to walk and then flop over on her side. I tried to make little cups/rings to prop her up in to give her practice standing upright with the leg brace and chick shoes (a la https://sites.google.com/a/poultrypedia.com/poultrypedia/poultry-podiatry), but she just wanted out and kept managing to hop out of her ring/cup and end up on her side again. So I did a little PT with her and literally held her upright so she could see how it felt to stand properly. Then I'd let her go a little to stand on her own and just pick her back up whenever she stumbled and fell over. Didn't have much time to work with her this morning since we were out all morning and afternoon, but I'm really impressed with her progress this afternoon, she's staying upright so much beter and longer than before, I can tell her leg strength is getting better. She still doesn't seem to be able to right herself when she stumbles, but her legs are basically tied together and she's got big bulky things on her feet so I can't really blame her! She seems pretty vibrant and takes the electrolyte water out of an eye dropper really well so I'm hopeful that once her feet straighten out she'll be just fine.

I'm sorry about your passing lavender, sounds like there was something going on with development maybe. I read that temp spikes can cause foot problems, I certainly had problems with temperature so that makes sense for me. DH just had a talk with me about Henny Penny (what I've been calling my messed up leg chick)... he was concerned that I was getting too attached and wanted to remind me of the real possibility that it might not make it.

 

[emorems0]

Cross-posted from the June Hatch a Long thread...

Well, we lost a perfectly healthy chickie today... 3-year old was reaching into the brooder to pick up a chick and accidentally fell in as she was trying to catch it. One poor chickie was in the wrong place at the wrong time. So we are down to 6. She feels really bad about it, but the girls got an important lesson in how fragile the chicks are. Hoping I'll have to do less reminding about rough handling after this lesson. We buried the chick under our lilac bush and my 6yo decorated a rock to put over it.


In other news, Henny Penny is doing great! I took her chick shoes off this morning and her feet seem to be all straightened out. I left the brace/hobbles around her legs since I think that takes longer to correct. She's been picking at it anyway, so I figure that if she is able to get it off in the next day or two we can evaluate whether she still needs it, or I'll just take it off in another day or two to see. She's walking around the brooder, standing well, eating and drinking from the big food container with the other chicks now. She can get around much better with the chick shoes off, and she even jumped up to escape a little chickie enclosure (built by my girls from those big cardboard blocks). She's a little smaller than the other chicks, but now that she's getting around and eating better, I have a feeling she'll catch up.

We also took the chicks outside for a bit yesterday since it was so warm and they loved running around in the grass, already scratching at the ground and chasing bugs

 

[Angiebubs]

Wowo sorry to hear about the chick with your daughter-feel bad for both!!!

So glad to hear you had success with the bootie! Did you take any pics?

I tried and was failing miserably so took it off. I discovered that the one foot (where the toes seem ok) is purple right where the toes join the foot itself-like an injury. She CAN stand on it but it obviously hurts so she hold the entire leg out to the side. I am worried it will develop into that position. Her other foot the toes are all curled and foot is turned to the side. I am not sure what to do as they are under a broody. When I tried taping her up, she ended up falling and left her leg out behind her crying :-( I am gone 12-13 hrs a day so can't really put her into a brooder either.

The other concerning thing is-shes not interested in eating yet. I believe she is 4 or 5 days old....she should be eating but she doesnt want to do anything but stay under momma. There is never food in her crop but she is very active and alert. Not sure what to do. I am off shortly so will have a long weekend to work with her.

 

[emorems0]

I did take some pictures, will have to get them downloaded onto the computer. Henny Penny really wasn't eating at first either, I was feeding her Sav-a-Chick electrolyte stuff from a dropper a few times a day. After she figured out it was good stuff, she started pecking at it like a poultry nipple and actually taught the other chicks to do it too... so when I go to the brooder with the dropper they all come running, so funny. The first thing I actually saw her 'eat' was an ant when we were outside practicing standing on the sidewalk. It took a good 2 days before she was able to get around well enough to get interested in eating the chick food.

She had a REALLY hard time walking with the chick shoes at first, I questioned whether I made a mistake at first since she'd just flop over. But after about a day she got better at standing up (still couldn't right herself if she stumbled though). So it's just the one foot that is curled, but the other one looks injured/painful? I'd definitely try again this weekend when you can be there to work with your chick. You want to be able to help her get the hang of it before you leave her for long, and probably best to isolate her (or maybe bring a friend with), but it will probably be too much for her to figure out with the other chicks and mama and fluffy bedding. I'd probably start with a shoe on the curled foot and just watch what she does with that other leg before you pull it in with a brace/hobble. Once she's able to stand on the curled foot, it will take some of the pressure off of the injured foot and then add a hobble/brace if she still seems to be holding it out.

After I put the shoes on, she really wouldn't stand at all so I held her upright for a bit so she could see what proper standing felt like. I tried to do the cup thing to prop her up but she just wanted out of it, so I just stood her up as long as I could then let her go and encouraged her to stand up properly as much as possible (wasn't that hard bc she'd fall over all the time, so I had to pick her back up from her side and I'd put her back upright). She'd sit back after a while and I'd let her rest, but I came by a lot to encourage her to stand up tall and strengthen her leg muscles. It really didn't take long for her to build up enough strength to stand upright on her own and the more she did it, it seemed the more she wanted to. I also took her out of the brooder several times to practice on a hard floor (wood floor on a paper towel or outside on the sidewalk - hard, flat, but textured/not slippery). That seemed to really help her too. I also started putting paper towels over the pine shavings in the brooder to make a more level surface/easier to walk on.

It was a two person job to get the 'shoes' on. DH held the chick and I did the shoes. Once you get the shoes figured out, you might want to do the 'hobbles' leg brace thing too if she's still holding that other leg out - the poultry podiatry page says it's a mental thing, so fixing the feet may not fix the leg/help her to stand properly since she's getting into the mental habit of putting her leg out wrong. That was easier to put on and I did it by myself - just trimmed a bandaid down so it was narrow and wrapped the sticky ends around each ankle, trying to avoid any feathers.

I'll try to get some pictures up this afternoon