I was expecting chicks today . Especially the bantams . I began to suspect that the eggs were not good and I cracked one and I thought I saw a dead chick. A few moments later it started moving and peeping . I have it in a small plastic bucket with moist paper towel keeping it around 98-101 and 50-70% humidity . It looks like maybe a day early and the yolk sack in the last 8 hours or so has shrunk by nearly half . I am really hoping this poor thing makes it and I dont have its death on my hands ...
I have made a huge mistake.......
- Thread starter rederik13
- Start date
This is why most people say to wait almost a week later. Are you sure you counted the days right?
Please don't be too rough on yourself. It happens to the best of us.
Last year I had 5 eggs in my little Brinsea. Earlier I had added a manual turning unit to it and it was the first time I had tried it out. When I put the eggs into lockdown, all 5 were viable. I wanted to move the incubator to our bathroom where I could close the door and our cats would leave them alone. Imagine my horror when the lid came flying off the incubator and 4 of the eggs either landed on the floor or on the table where the incubator had been sitting.
One egg 'died' in my hand horribly shattered, blood dripping between my fingers. 3 others were badly fractured but not bleeding or oozing. One somehow escaped damage. I was sobbing but pulled myself together and went to work. I cleaned the eggs and spackled them together with paraffin. 3 of the 4 showed movement. The other egg developed a blood ring the next day and I pulled it from the incubator and held my breath. The next day all three of the remaining eggs hatched healthy undamaged chicks that are now a year old. I call them my miracle chicks.
Turned out the manual turner unit had a 'burr' on it that kept the lid from engaging the flange that kept it in place. I've been doing this for over 6 years now so it happens.
We learn from our experiences when dealing with chickens. In the perfect world mistakes don't happen but this world isn't perfect.
Take a deep breath, forgive yourself, learn from this experience and wait to see what happens. The little one has suffered blood loss. If it is strong enough, it will survive. Handle it as little as possible so the egg yolk sack isn't damaged. When it does absorb I personally would try to get a few drops of nutri drench or chick saver down it along with a little sugar water to replace the lost fluid from blood loss. It's a waiting game now.
I'll be saying a prayer for you and your little chick if you don't mind. And keeping all my fingers crossed.
Last year I had 5 eggs in my little Brinsea. Earlier I had added a manual turning unit to it and it was the first time I had tried it out. When I put the eggs into lockdown, all 5 were viable. I wanted to move the incubator to our bathroom where I could close the door and our cats would leave them alone. Imagine my horror when the lid came flying off the incubator and 4 of the eggs either landed on the floor or on the table where the incubator had been sitting.
One egg 'died' in my hand horribly shattered, blood dripping between my fingers. 3 others were badly fractured but not bleeding or oozing. One somehow escaped damage. I was sobbing but pulled myself together and went to work. I cleaned the eggs and spackled them together with paraffin. 3 of the 4 showed movement. The other egg developed a blood ring the next day and I pulled it from the incubator and held my breath. The next day all three of the remaining eggs hatched healthy undamaged chicks that are now a year old. I call them my miracle chicks.
Turned out the manual turner unit had a 'burr' on it that kept the lid from engaging the flange that kept it in place. I've been doing this for over 6 years now so it happens.
We learn from our experiences when dealing with chickens. In the perfect world mistakes don't happen but this world isn't perfect.
Take a deep breath, forgive yourself, learn from this experience and wait to see what happens. The little one has suffered blood loss. If it is strong enough, it will survive. Handle it as little as possible so the egg yolk sack isn't damaged. When it does absorb I personally would try to get a few drops of nutri drench or chick saver down it along with a little sugar water to replace the lost fluid from blood loss. It's a waiting game now.
I'll be saying a prayer for you and your little chick if you don't mind. And keeping all my fingers crossed.
You can use corn starch to stop where the bleeding is coming from. I wouldn’t keep it on a wet paper towel, it will chill. I usually put chicks that are in rough shape in a mug or bowl in the incubator. I wouldn’t remove it at all so it doesn’t chill. Just let it rest for the night and check on it every so often. Nutri drench will be great when the chick is moving and not lethargic. Don’t force fluids to a chick because you can aspirate them very easily.
Hope this little chick recovers quickly for you!
Don’t worry most of us have assisted at one point or another and have similar stories. Don’t be hard on yourself! And don’t let other people being hard on you get to you, we are human, we are not perfect!
Hope this little chick recovers quickly for you!
Don’t worry most of us have assisted at one point or another and have similar stories. Don’t be hard on yourself! And don’t let other people being hard on you get to you, we are human, we are not perfect!
- Thread starter
- #6
it has been around 24hrs and so far it is still alive and peeping. Had an incident where the teen left the door open and the cats went in and had tried to get to it but were unable . That had moved it out from under the lamp and it got down to the lower 90s. I am going to look into this nutridrench you are mentioning. I am amazed I have gotten it this far to be honest . I have done what I can to mimic a safe warm humid environment and we have been checking on it repeatedly even in the night making sure we get it to respond to peeps.
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So how is little chick doing today?
FeatherTay
Crowing
Yes please tell us!!!
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