brickhaven
Chirping
- May 25, 2024
- 11
- 59
- 53
Do I have a story for you all!!! Hi everyone. I am new here and new to hatching eggs. That said, I have raised and helped bring into this world many things from fish to goats to dogs to a human, and now I am raising and hatching chicks.
If any of you have experienced what I am about to tell you, I'm sorry if this bores you and I am even sorrier that you had to experience this horror. So...last night we had two Mille Fleur D'Uccle chicks born. They are still in the incubator, at this morning we had #3 hatch. Well, one of the chicks born last night decided it wanted the umbilical cord from the new hatchling. It pecked it, walked away, and then returned and picked it up. It dropped it. No big deal, right? After all, I didn't want to open the incubator for something so simple when a chick had just hatched seconds before.
Well, the 12 hour old chick returned and picked up the entire remnant of the umbilical cord from it's little wet friend and when the other 12 hour old chick approached to see what was going on, the first chick quickly inhaled the entire umbilical cord....yes, INHALED! The chick flopped around and slung it's little head and then went limp.
My husband and I were watching in horror. I quickly grabbed it out of the incubator and handed it to my husband. He held it's beak open for me and I could see the cord stuck in it's throat. At this time its head dropped backwards and it wasn't breathing at all. I tried to retrieve the cord, but couldn't reach it because this little baby bantam's beak and mouth were so tiny.
I ran to the bathroom as my husband yelled "hurry, it's not gonna make it!" I grabbed some tweezers and ran back to the room with the incubator. I reached inside and grabbed the cord and pulled it from the chick's throat. It's head was still limp and it's now closed it's eyes. It wasn't going to breathe again. I grabbed it from my husband's hand and tried to give it chest compressions (I have a medical background) but nothing was helping. I put my mouth on its beak and gently blew into it's mouth. Still nothing. I opened it's beak and blew into it's mouth harder but from a distance. Still, no response. It was just limp and not breathing. I blew into it's mouth a couple more times and it opened it's eyes but nothing else. My husband said "just put it back in the incubator, it's in shock". I quickly realized I had water in my hand. Water came from the chicks lungs into my hand....and it was still limp, but I put it back in the incubator. Once inside, it simply laid lifeless on the incubator floor, but it was finally breathing! No movement. It's eyes were no longer open. It was going to die from shock! THEN...one of the other chicks bumped into it and like a jumping bean, that lifeless chick jumped straight up and started chirping!!!!! It's alive and well!!!!!
I would have never imagined this could happen. We are always told to never open the incubator until all the chicks are hatched, yada yada yada. While that may be true, I learned today that there are still dangers inside that incubator despite all the precautions we take and even if we do everything right. Thank God we were there watching or we would have simply found a seemingly healthy, but then dead chick and never knew what happened.
Thank you for letting me share this. I hope it helps someone else to prevent this from happening. If a chick picks up another chicks cord, take it away as soon as possible...and have tweezers in your hatching toolbox
Have a wonderful day everyone! Here's a pic of the three muskateers of my morning of horror lol.
~Brick Haven Farm
"Chicken Math is REAL"
If any of you have experienced what I am about to tell you, I'm sorry if this bores you and I am even sorrier that you had to experience this horror. So...last night we had two Mille Fleur D'Uccle chicks born. They are still in the incubator, at this morning we had #3 hatch. Well, one of the chicks born last night decided it wanted the umbilical cord from the new hatchling. It pecked it, walked away, and then returned and picked it up. It dropped it. No big deal, right? After all, I didn't want to open the incubator for something so simple when a chick had just hatched seconds before.
Well, the 12 hour old chick returned and picked up the entire remnant of the umbilical cord from it's little wet friend and when the other 12 hour old chick approached to see what was going on, the first chick quickly inhaled the entire umbilical cord....yes, INHALED! The chick flopped around and slung it's little head and then went limp.
My husband and I were watching in horror. I quickly grabbed it out of the incubator and handed it to my husband. He held it's beak open for me and I could see the cord stuck in it's throat. At this time its head dropped backwards and it wasn't breathing at all. I tried to retrieve the cord, but couldn't reach it because this little baby bantam's beak and mouth were so tiny.
I ran to the bathroom as my husband yelled "hurry, it's not gonna make it!" I grabbed some tweezers and ran back to the room with the incubator. I reached inside and grabbed the cord and pulled it from the chick's throat. It's head was still limp and it's now closed it's eyes. It wasn't going to breathe again. I grabbed it from my husband's hand and tried to give it chest compressions (I have a medical background) but nothing was helping. I put my mouth on its beak and gently blew into it's mouth. Still nothing. I opened it's beak and blew into it's mouth harder but from a distance. Still, no response. It was just limp and not breathing. I blew into it's mouth a couple more times and it opened it's eyes but nothing else. My husband said "just put it back in the incubator, it's in shock". I quickly realized I had water in my hand. Water came from the chicks lungs into my hand....and it was still limp, but I put it back in the incubator. Once inside, it simply laid lifeless on the incubator floor, but it was finally breathing! No movement. It's eyes were no longer open. It was going to die from shock! THEN...one of the other chicks bumped into it and like a jumping bean, that lifeless chick jumped straight up and started chirping!!!!! It's alive and well!!!!!
I would have never imagined this could happen. We are always told to never open the incubator until all the chicks are hatched, yada yada yada. While that may be true, I learned today that there are still dangers inside that incubator despite all the precautions we take and even if we do everything right. Thank God we were there watching or we would have simply found a seemingly healthy, but then dead chick and never knew what happened.
Thank you for letting me share this. I hope it helps someone else to prevent this from happening. If a chick picks up another chicks cord, take it away as soon as possible...and have tweezers in your hatching toolbox
Have a wonderful day everyone! Here's a pic of the three muskateers of my morning of horror lol.
~Brick Haven Farm
"Chicken Math is REAL"
