Hatching Chicks With A Heat Pad And A Egg Carton Experiment

[MGG]

Sneaky.

I spanked them if they were noisy, lol

 

[DogAndCat36]

Little Side Note- Everyone, don't be afraid to talk about some of your chicks stories and ect., I know that this is not a chat thread but it is still my thread, so I say, "It's a-ok".

 

[DogAndCat36]

I spanked them if they were noisy, lol

Watch out or they might seek revenge.

 

[DogAndCat36]

Day 9 (chicken incubation, seven days)- Holy crap, holy crap! I messed up! The heat pad reached 120 Fahrenheit, I don't know how long, possibly 10 minutes! I checked on them and the eggs did not feel that hot and I candled them gently, they looked ok. Fingers crossed, let's hope that there ok. It would be horrible if this ended so suddenly. I do not want to see the poor chicks dead especially since I was able to look into one of their unborn eyes today.

 

[MGG]

Day 9 (chicken incubation, seven days)- Holy crap, holy crap! I messed up! The heat pad reached 120 Fahrenheit, I don't know how long, possibly 10 minutes! I checked on them and the eggs did not feel that hot and I candled them gently, they looked ok. Fingers crossed, let's hope that there ok. It would be horrible if this ended so suddenly. I do not want to see the poor chicks dead especially since I was able to look into one of their unborn eyes today.

My sister's DIY incubator did that a few months ago. Her little egg was day 6 I think. It was at 118 for 30 minutes. It miraculously hatched. The bator's temp for the 21 days ranged from 88 to 118. It sure is a miracle! And she only set one egg! Here's little miracle baby

 

[Flashpoint]

True "nature will find a way" and chickens are crazily durable. When I was little, I heard that an old lady's hen froze solid, who knows why she didn't put her in a warm coop, well, anyway, she carefully warmed her up and she was still alive! A frozen solid chicken that was frozen for who knows how long and hasn't taken a breath till unthawed, crazy huh?

DogAndCat - I lived that one!! In 1981 I lived on top of Green Ridge Mtn in western MD on a 500-acre farm. On March 17, I had a foal born from my mare - her first. (This helps me keep my dates straight! lol)

It was only a week maybe two later, we suddenly had a fast and furious blizzard. The snow came down so fast and the temps dropped so dramatically, the horses never made it back to the main barn. We were lucky to get the horses and goats out of the backfield into the barn, and all the birds (chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys) into the coops. I never noticed at the time that one was missing - but she was missing out of 100 free-ranging chickens and, believe me, it's not hard to skip a bird here or there.

I was beside myself because my mare and new foal were in the missing herd, but there was just no way to get into the valley they were probably in. However, there was an old barn down there and I just hoped they were inside.

Later that evening, I had to go out and get firewood (yup - only heat was a wood stove) and went out on the back porch to get wood off the wood stack. Lo and behold, I found a chicken - a naked neck (or turken) laying on top of the wood. Frozen. Stiff as a board. Seriously. So frozen that when I picked her up - her neck was stretched out in front of her body and her legs straight out behind and she didn't have a bend in her. I do believe had I slapped her against the woodpile, she would have broken in half!!

Unfortunately, the particular chicken was the pet of my then 10-year-old son. Her name was Gretchen (all the animals had names) and he went almost hysterical when I brought her inside - begging me to save his chicken.

Well, by that time I was just convinced there was no way in hell that was going to happen but decided it would be best if it looked like we had at least tried. So my husband got a box and laid a towel in it, put the chicken on the towel, covered her up with my son's favorite blanket - and put her behind the woodstove. As parents, we thought once my son had gone to sleep, we could come up with another idea - like have a funeral the next day.

The storm had started around 3 pm that afternoon and I guess it was around 6 pm that I went to get wood. So that chicken laid in that box for about 4 hours. When she suddenly came out from under the blanket, out of the box and was pecking around the floor.

To say our jaws hit the floor would be an understatement.

My son was ecstatic, to say the least, and insisted on keeping her in his room that night. I didn't argue the point.

All we could figure is that the temps had dropped so fast and so hard, that chicken went into a form of suspended animation?? And because the woodstove sent most of the heat out towards the room, she just slowly "thawed out". In any event, she lived another 3 years after that.

I will swear to this day - she was Frozen. Hard as a rock.

 

[Flashpoint]

Day 9 (chicken incubation, seven days)- Holy crap, holy crap! I messed up! The heat pad reached 120 Fahrenheit, I don't know how long, possibly 10 minutes! I checked on them and the eggs did not feel that hot and I candled them gently, they looked ok. Fingers crossed, let's hope that there ok. It would be horrible if this ended so suddenly. I do not want to see the poor chicks dead especially since I was able to look into one of their unborn eyes today.

Breathe....breathe. All may not be lost and hope you soon know!

 

[MGG]

DogAndCat - I lived that one!! In 1981 I lived on top of Green Ridge Mtn in western MD on a 500-acre farm. On March 17, I had a foal born from my mare - her first. (This helps me keep my dates straight! lol)

It was only a week maybe two later, we suddenly had a fast and furious blizzard. The snow came down so fast and the temps dropped so dramatically, the horses never made it back to the main barn. We were lucky to get the horses and goats out of the backfield into the barn, and all the birds (chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys) into the coops. I never noticed at the time that one was missing - but she was missing out of 100 free-ranging chickens and, believe me, it's not hard to skip a bird here or there.

I was beside myself because my mare and new foal were in the missing herd, but there was just no way to get into the valley they were probably in. However, there was an old barn down there and I just hoped they were inside.

Later that evening, I had to go out and get firewood (yup - only heat was a wood stove) and went out on the back porch to get wood off the wood stack. Lo and behold, I found a chicken - a naked neck (or turken) laying on top of the wood. Frozen. Stiff as a board. Seriously. So frozen that when I picked her up - her neck was stretched out in front of her body and her legs straight out behind and she didn't have a bend in her. I do believe had I slapped her against the woodpile, she would have broken in half!!

Unfortunately, the particular chicken was the pet of my then 10-year-old son. Her name was Gretchen (all the animals had names) and he went almost hysterical when I brought her inside - begging me to save his chicken.

Well, by that time I was just convinced there was no way in hell that was going to happen but decided it would be best if it looked like we had at least tried. So my husband got a box and laid a towel in it, put the chicken on the towel, covered her up with my son's favorite blanket - and put her behind the woodstove. As parents, we thought once my son had gone to sleep, we could come up with another idea - like have a funeral the next day.

The storm had started around 3 pm that afternoon and I guess it was around 6 pm that I went to get wood. So that chicken laid in that box for about 4 hours. When she suddenly came out from under the blanket, out of the box and was pecking around the floor.

To say our jaws hit the floor would be an understatement.

My son was ecstatic, to say the least, and insisted on keeping her in his room that night. I didn't argue the point.

All we could figure is that the temps had dropped so fast and so hard, that chicken went into a form of suspended animation?? And because the woodstove sent most of the heat out towards the room, she just slowly "thawed out". In any event, she lived another 3 years after that.

I will swear to this day - she was Frozen. Hard as a rock.

OMG! That's incredible! Thanks for sharing that! What an awesome story!

 

[nao57]

Well for you to get away with it while having guineas?! WOW! Those are supposed to be the ones that never shut up lol.

 

[MGG]

Well for you to get away with it while having guineas?! WOW! Those are supposed to be the ones that never shut up lol.

Yeah, the guineas never got old enough to make noise while I had them. They were in the house and they only made peeping sounds like a baby chicken would. I did, however, much to my parents dismay, fall in love with a sweet little guinea keet who had a lot of trouble hatching. She was quite a few days overdue and I had to assist her entire hatch. I externally pipped the shell for her, I opened up the air cell the next day and moistened the membrane, I found that she was malpositioned. So all through the night I got up and checked on her. She always heard me coming and made little peeping sounds from in the egg. Once I guessed she had absorbed everything I helped her out. It was 3 am lol. She had a bit of yolk left, but she absorbed it after hatching. Anyway, I couldn't say good-bye to her, she had imprinted on me. Her siblings were much almost a week older and they picked on her so I kept her in a tote in my room with a MHP (Mama Heating Pad) contraption for heat. She cuddled with me in my bed in the evening. I convinced mom and dad to let me keep her. I think they regret that decision. I love her so much, but she is just so dumb. The dumbest bird I have ever seen actually. She is so scatter brained. She still follows me everywhere, but she incessantly pecks my rubber boots. Like, for 20+ minutes straight. I have no idea why. They're just black rubber. She also loves to sit on the roof and belt out her hideous song. Mom hates the noise. She doesn't make any noise until after 9 a.m. though, and she stops just after 6. She just randomly makes noise throughout that period of time. If a car goes by, if a chicken takes her worm, if a chicken steps on her toe, if she wants a treat, if a scary leaf blows by, etc, etc. The mayor actually thinks she's really cool though, and his son's kids tried to convince their dad to let them buy 10 of them. They don't mind her at all. The closest neighbor has a nasty dog that has killed 1 pheasant (my favorite bird for a long time) and 4 awesome pullets that we brought with us when we moved here. We were devastated. We also bought a 400 dollar prefab coop since we moved in the dead of winter and couldn't buy anything. The dog destroyed it. Like totally shredded it. It went out to the curb. The neighbors knew their dog had did it, and my little sister and brothers were so heartbroken. My littlest brother (3) wouldn't talk for several days because he missed Dory so bad. The neighbors never even apologized or said anything to us about it. No refund for the coop. There were even carcasses in their yard! We weren't home at the time, we had briefly gone out of town. The people who were watching them (the mayor's son and grandsons) tried to go talk to them but they wouldn't even open the door. They were home, but just didn't want to be confronted. They have been very cold to us ever since, even though all we've ever done is be nice to them! Anyway, sorry for the rant. I was trying to make the point that I really could care less if my guinea annoys them, gives them a taste of their own medicine. I really like the guinea though, I'm excited for her eggs, and she has gorgeous feathers.