Hatched My First BABY today!!! I didn't do anything...

[Calebs Acre]

I bought a gorgeous pair of splash silkies from Ohio and took them to my upstate farm to live, but on the way to NY from Ohio, there was an egg, so I put it in the incubator with my two dewlap eggs. All along, I figured that my first hatch would be the dewlap toulouse eggs, but while I was worrying night and day about THEM, this little silkie egg was doin' its thing.

My husband is the "Official Candler" and he told me yesterday AM that he saw movement and heard peeping, so I set up a second incubator, with the higher humidity, and last night, when we got our first PIP, we moved the egg to the new incubator. All morning, nothing happened. We work at night, so gave up and went to sleep at 1pm and at 3pm, when my husband got up, he checked and there was a fully hatched CHICK!!!! YEAH!!

I've tried not to disturb it, but how soon can I touch the baby? I know that at 24 hours, I can move it into the brooder and I am going to put a stuffed animal in with it since it is a single baby, but I want to touch it NOW!

Anything else special to do for a single chick? Should I have the temp a little higher for it? I'm more worried now that it is here than I was when it was in the 'bator.

I only have a few days left on my goose eggs, and am so concerned about them because of the low hatch rate, but this little one has really made me feel better!!! I want to hold it.

 

[FloridaChickenChick]

Quote:
Ha. My DH can relate!

Congratulations on your successful hatch! I have NO answers to your questions, just good wishes.

 

[chickenannie]

It will be fine, but will be lonely. Can you put a second chick with it? I'm only speaking from experience -- my turkey chick cheeped and cried incessantly until I stole another turkey chick from it's momma and put them together. Now they are best buds and do everything together and they cry when they are separated.

 

[Calebs Acre]

Florida: Thank you so much for your wishes! My husband was born in Manhattan and lived in a family with no pets his entire life. His mother was the daughter of an orthodox rabbi and they are true clean freaks. Marrying me certainly put his well-ordered life on its ear!

Annie: The closest thing that I have are a couple of astrolorp chicks that are partially feathered, so they aren't that young. I have some call duck babies that are 2-3 weeks old, too. But, everything else is older and bigger. I am concerned about putting this tiny baby with something too big. I mean, I could go ahead and put it with the ducks, or I could just keep it by me all of the time. LOL. I decided to make a brooder out of a clear plastic tub since this chick is by itself. It will be able to hear and see the baby ducks, but unless I change things, they will not be in the same place and the ducks don't need the heat anymore. I just took them to room temperature. Plus, they are very messy and wet all of the time. So I might have talked myself into the answer.

Wish there were more chicken people closer to Long Island and then I could buy, borrow or steal a new born from someone!

 

[Calebs Acre]

I think maybe I will post to see if anyone has any silkie babies coming that will be about the same age to ship or pick up.....