Heartbroken

[Lawschoolchickenmom]

I hatched four, beautiful calico silkies overnight, 1 day ago. They were stable in the incubator and I had to go to school tonight because I’m in law school. I made sure everything was set up for my teen daughters in case of an emergency. Well AT&T is running fiber optic through the neighborhood for a brand new house that went up a week ago. They knock on the door and they say, “We have to cut the electricity for 15 minutes.” To which my kids say, “No, we have brand new chicks and you aren’t the electric company.” They walked off and DID IT ANYWAYS! I scramble and call Withlacoochie Electric to ask why I just spent 400 dollars on electric. There is no storm, there is no crisis happening and our electric is off. I tell them AT&T did it and they tell me that’s not possible that unless they are up the pole, they can’t cut our electric because we have overhead electric. I said they are up the pole because they cut the electric and I have brand new baby chicks in the incubator without electricity. They tell me to hold on a minute and they come back on the line and say they are sending the police to our house because it was done without a permit and without a warning. My precious daughter scramble to insulate the incubator, but also leave a hole for breathing. The electricity was off for 39 minutes. The heat dropped dramatically, and as my girls tried to get the brooder warmed up to switch the chicks over for this unforeseen problem—we lose two. By the time the electricity came back on it was 83° in the incubator and they basically gave my chicks hypothermia. Now I have these two beautiful blonde silkies left but they are weak. My daughters put the two blondes in their bras to warm them quickly and I honestly think it saved their lives. They are still fluffing up but still sticky in places. My question is how often can I give electrolytes to these two? I am almost positive that they used all of their yolk energy on stabilizing and they act very weak and stumble around and sleep a lot. They are officially 30 hours and 29 hours old. I just don’t want to overheat or give them hypothermia and I can tell they need energy now. I’m sorry for the book, I just can’t lose another chick. I’m used to incubating Rhode Island reds and Jersey Giants. I have never done a clutch of silkies. I can say it has been the most nerve-racking hatch of my entire life and I’ve been doing this since I was 19. Bantams in general are so touchy and they can be very finicky and hard. I just need help stabilizing them so they make it through the night. I am so sorry for the novel.

 

[rlschroeder]

I hatched four, beautiful calico silkies overnight, 1 day ago. They were stable in the incubator and I had to go to school tonight because I’m in law school. I made sure everything was set up for my teen daughters in case of an emergency. Well AT&T is running fiber optic through the neighborhood for a brand new house that went up a week ago. They knock on the door and they say, “We have to cut the electricity for 15 minutes.” To which my kids say, “No, we have brand new chicks and you aren’t the electric company.” They walked off and DID IT ANYWAYS! I scramble and call Withlacoochie Electric to ask why I just spent 400 dollars on electric. There is no storm, there is no crisis happening and our electric is off. I tell them AT&T did it and they tell me that’s not possible that unless they are up the pole, they can’t cut our electric because we have overhead electric. I said they are up the pole because they cut the electric and I have brand new baby chicks in the incubator without electricity. They tell me to hold on a minute and they come back on the line and say they are sending the police to our house because it was done without a permit and without a warning. My precious daughter scramble to insulate the incubator, but also leave a hole for breathing. The electricity was off for 39 minutes. The heat dropped dramatically, and as my girls tried to get the brooder warmed up to switch the chicks over for this unforeseen problem—we lose two. By the time the electricity came back on it was 83° in the incubator and they basically gave my chicks hypothermia. Now I have these two beautiful blonde silkies left but they are weak. My daughters put the two blondes in their bras to warm them quickly and I honestly think it saved their lives. They are still fluffing up but still sticky in places. My question is how often can I give electrolytes to these two? I am almost positive that they used all of their yolk energy on stabilizing and they act very weak and stumble around and sleep a lot. They are officially 30 hours and 29 hours old. I just don’t want to overheat or give them hypothermia and I can tell they need energy now. I’m sorry for the book, I just can’t lose another chick. I’m used to incubating Rhode Island reds and Jersey Giants. I have never done a clutch of silkies. I can say it has been the most nerve-racking hatch of my entire life and I’ve been doing this since I was 19. Bantams in general are so touchy and they can be very finicky and hard. I just need help stabilizing them so they make it through the night. I am so sorry for the novel.

Wow, so sorry this is happening. Very strange - and unfortunate. I’ve never hatched chicks from an incubator but have raised day old ones from the hatchery. Are they under a heat plate or lamp now? I believe you can give the electrolytes up to 5 days. I’d also make a mash out of their feed with warm water and help them eat. Or even give them bits of the yolk from a hard boiled egg.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Oh man, how awful! I don't hatch yet but I watch a lot of people who do, I can only imagine how devastated you must be. Bless your girls for thinking of their body heat, that was brilliant. Let me tag some of our experienced hatchers to help you out. And good luck!

@kattabelly
@Debbie292d
@gullinkambe

 

[Debbie292d]

So sorry for what happened!

I'm not sure if they came out of the incubator too soon, or why they'd be sticky.

They should be at 95F. I'd just try to leave them alone and let their bodies recover. They may snap right out of it once they warm back up. You could give them warm electrolytes, but only for 1/2 day. They need fresh water after that.

Adding warm water to their crumbles is a good idea.

Will the phone company pay you for what you lost?

 

[Debbie292d]

My hubby is an electrician who once worked for a phone company. He said that at the very least, knowing you had baby chicks, they could have brought over a generator. Too late now of course, but he agreed with me that sure sounds cruel what they did.

 

[gullinkambe]

Oh wow I'm so sorry for you! That would have to be the worst possible moment for the power to go out. Great work from your daughters!

I'm dreadful with illness and emergencies, they freak me out, so I can't give any good advice. My personal favorite for weak chicks is boiled eggs in miniscule pieces. But of course they'll actually have to eat it. Tube-feeding is an option, but I've never had the nerve to try.

Crossing fingers they'll pull through!

 

[Bsmac]

So sorry that is awful... I hope they will be fine.

 

[Altairsky]

Bra is the best emergency incubator. Don't tell my husband how many birds I put down there!
Typical scenario: I'm cycling in winter, find a bird hit by a car on the side of the road, pick it up and stuck it in my bra until it either dies or fix itself. They usually recover. Last time it was a blue tit, I even got home and at that point I told my husband to "look at my tit". I leave the details to your imagination.

 

[Lawschoolchickenmom]

They made it. I’m still in shock honestly. I am SO grateful for daughters who can think on their feet in a crisis.





Last night was terrifying — they weren’t regulating temperature at all and the brooder plate kept needing adjustment. Because they were so weak and lethargic, I was constantly drying them, repositioning, and monitoring. I finally started very small q-tip dips of honey water just to stabilize glucose and it worked almost immediately. They perked up like kids on sugar, and from there I offered tiny amounts of warm water every 30 minutes and let them sleep in between.





At about the 6-hour mark I did one more tiny bit of honey (literally about ½ tsp in a mug of warm water), made a mash, and by then the brooder plate was dialed in. They fluffed up, started self-regulating, moving between warm and cool, exploring, nibbling mash, and drinking on their own. Total turnaround.





I corrected the splay on chick B — now officially named Rogue — and when I woke up a couple hours later they were either zooming around or falling asleep standing up like normal babies. The curly one is now Elle Woods (obviously appropriate for a law student household ). They’ve been completely normal chicks ever since. I truly thought I was going to lose them — they had the yawning, limpness, and deep lethargy. They were right on the brink when I got home.





Now I’m stressing over my second batch after the power loss and turner reset. My Jubilee Orpingtons plus 15 splash/blue/buff eggs sat without turning for about 16 hours before I caught it. I filed a complaint with AT&T because the outage caused the whole cascade and honestly it feels traumatic. Anyone who hatches knows — you love these eggs all the way through development and do everything by the book, and then something totally outside your control threatens lives that are literally just beginning. It’s not “just emotional,” it’s the weight of caring for something fragile and alive. The police officer who took the report to ban them from my property thought I was a total whack job. He said, “So they killed your chicks? That’s your complaint?” They killed living, breathing babies that I fretted over for 23 days! How can you not process that!?





Anyway… grateful beyond words that these two pulled through. Fluffy, loud, eating, drinking, and absolutely gorgeous. Thank you everyone for your sweet and encouraging words, recommendations, and terrific welcome. It truly means a lot!

 

[gullinkambe]

They made it!
The honey-water on q-tip sounds ingenious, I'll write that one down till when I need it.

I know how stressful and heartbreaking power-outages can be. When we first moved here, we didn't realize that power-outages were a common occurrence. There's been a lot of scrambling to save eggs and chicks over the years. It's a lot more stable now, luckily.

I'd love to hear what they say about your complaint. Yours is an unusual situation, as the outage wasn't some weather related accident or other understandable situation. As a law-student I'm guessing you know the rules!

And crossing fingers for your next batches too. Jubilee Orpington, oh they're gorgeous!