Help, stuck chicks?

[Sachasmom]

Okay, so my hatch was due today. Only I wasn't going to be home.

AND my son did the one thing I told him over and over NOT to do, open the incubator! I have no clue how often he opened it, when I got home tonight the temp and humidity were both low.

I finally quick took out the six healthy ones who had hatched so I could rescue the two that were obviously stuck/saran wrapped to their shells! One looks okay, I dunno about the other one.

I'm sooo bummed that he probably killed the rest of the chicks! Not like my hatch rate was great in the homemade incubator, but there are at least 4 or 5 more eggs with pips.

Should I try to crack those open in the morning? How long should I let the incubator run? The ones I helped out seemed pretty dry inside their shells, but one was like half out, and the other one was just plain stuck.

I swear, some days the kid makes me insane. He also didn't feed the rabbits either. Man, I ask him to do TWO things, and he messes up both!

 

[Jena]

I do not have first hand experience of hatching sorry,

but I believe they try to moisten up the membranes and see if the chicks can work their way free.

I am sure someone will be able to tell you just what to do.

Children are big on curiosity and small on hearing the jobs they are asked to do.... lol...

I hope it works out for you and your hatch.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

When my son was younger, we also had a lot of issues with listening problems. But now that I am older and he is a distant adult, in the long scheme of things, the MOST important thing in your life is that son, screw up his chores or not. Chicks don't always make it anyway and although we all sympathize with you for your chick losses, I think forgiving your son his mistake and dropping it would be a far wiser way to go, even if the chicks were some rare or exotic breed.

People are going crazy all over the country filling bators with eggs and yards and coops with chickens but your son is a precious gift as well and right now it doesn't seem like it but he will be a grown adult man and long gone before you realize where the time went and he will take all these memories down the road with him.

So maybe you can explain things about why you were upset before and the fact that this is why you made the rules, not to give him a hard time but because chicks have rules too and if they don't follow their rules, it can be devastating.

You have to own some of the responsibility for this mishap for leaving him home alone on hatch day. It may have been wiser to have dropped him with a relative or taken him with you. Chicks hatch in bators all alone all the time.

I hope you don't look at my post as a beating as much as a warning. Time really does fly so try to let this go and let him figure out what went wrong without forcing blame. I'm sure he is smart enough to figure he messed up if he is old enough to be left home alone. BTW, how old is he?

 

[KattyKillFish]

i use a little dropper to moisten the membrane. be sure the water is lukewarm, and im sorry to hear about your son.

maybe keep the incubator way up high next time where he can't see/reach it. explain to him why you don't want him to open it. say something like "if you open the incubator the chicks will die." not because it scares him, but because it's true. i use the same method with my nephew. tell him why you don't want him to rather than just telling him not to.

my nephew has NO interest in animals what-so-ever. i dont know if it's a blessing or a curse, i sure would like to see him grow up loving animals like i did.

im sorry about your experience, too. how low was the temp/humidity? they more than likely still have a chance.

 

[Chickbait]

Have him adopted

 

[Sachasmom]

I should have mentioned the son in question is 14.... Put the incubator where he can't get at it,

I guess I was trying to get him to understand a harsh lesson, that when you ignore things, sometimes things end up dead. We're having issues with the whole listening thing!

He was home with my husband, he was supposed to go with me to the rabbit show, but I left him home because of the whole teen attitude not listening thing! I had debated about putting a sign on the bator "DO NOT OPEN" but I figured, I had told him not to! (Over and over and OVER again. Maybe he figured I wouldn't know he opened it, since I wasn't here?

)

Of course, then I had to open it to get the chicks that were stuck...

My temps for the first 18 days were in the 99 to 100 degree range, it was 92 in there when I got home last night, temps are back up to normal though. I had a hard time getting the humidity in there over 50 the last few days. Its at like 70 now.

Its our first hatch in a homemade incubator, so part of the blame is newbie inexperiance, I am sure. I was just miffed that he didn't LISTEN yet again. I dunno where he gets that from!

I did get five more to hatch this am, but they look like they are having a lot of trouble getting out, some of them have bits of shell stuck to them.

 

[Ruditchka]

I dunno where he gets that from!

He must get it from your husbands side of the family!

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Quote:

That was MY thought, I know that is where my son got his listening deficit!

And 14: Sorry but this will likely continue for about 10 more years.

 

[john in wa]

10 more years ha im 38 and still dont listen to mom. lol
i have 3 boys of my own now 21 19 and 14 none of them listen to me so the cycle continues. and they all think they are way smarter than i ever was and i get told every day how old i am. what i think is funny from my wifes side of the family the all go bald in the early 20s so this old man has more hair than all three of them put together. haha

 

[KattyKillFish]

Quote:
14???? 14??? lol the way you described your problem you made it sound like he was between 7 and 10!!

be sure to tell him i said that!