Terminal Nostalgia
Hatching
- Jun 16, 2017
- 4
- 0
- 2
I was delighted when one of my hens went broody this year and placed six eggs under her in the nesting box.
Wasn't able to move her to her own run until about ten days in because I needed a second person to help move everything. Should have done this during the night to keep her calm and settled but I didn't think of that at the time.
Moved her and she immediately went un-broody. Gutted. I'd really wanted to have some chicks.
It occurred to me after about forty minutes to cover up the entrance to the nesting box for an hour or so to calm her and hopefully kick her back into being broody. Didn't think it would work but it did!
Wasn't sure if any of the babies would have survived though and I didn't want to risk the hen getting disturbed and going un-broody again by stealing her eggs to candle.
She's been very diligent though so I've had to hand feed her treats everyday or she wouldn't eat.
Hit day twenty/twenty one. No chicks.
Gave it another day. Nothing.
One more day and we stole her eggs to have a listen and see if any sounded like they contained more than liquid (couldn't get candling right with what we had to hand). To our utter surprise, an egg peeped!
We rushed it back to the mother and I checked in on it an hour or so later. A pip! Waited all day with no new activity and then checked on it at ten at night. By this point it should probably have been peeping for quite a long time and hadn't managed to make much more progress. Worried it might run out of oxygen before it hatched, I pinched a tiny hole in the membrane. Beak! Hello baby!
Tucked it back under, thinking that might have been a stupid move as I know membranes can contain a lot of blood but saw no signs of damage.
Checked this morning and it had only zipped a tiny bit all night. Started getting worried. The egg had been hatching for probably about twenty hours and had hardly made any progress but was very vocal in there.
Thought it might be time to intervene (mistake). Carefully broke away egg shell above the air pocket level to give it some help, before realising that might mess-up its zipping plans.
Had to leave for work after that though, nothing more I could do (i.e, no more damage.)
Came back from work and the baby had broken out a little more but was still mostly in the membrane with just a bit of wing and bea --
Bill showing.
A duck bill.
Oh bugger.
I remembered then the light blue egg my dad found outside and how I suggested it might have been one of next door's ducks that laid it. He said it was too blue looking and in truth it did look very much like our blue hen eggs. When I gave our broody eggs I gave her a range of colours. As I put the lightest blue under I thought to myself how funny it would be if that actually was a duck egg, and then forgot about it.
But now I have a duckling that's hatching out on its 25th/6th day and I have no idea what to do! It's still very vocal (and gets very upset if I pick it up.) But I'm not sure if it's A:hatching too early to survive or, B:stuck, because there's still plenty of membrane around it I don't dare touch.
What should I do? Try and give it a little water? Dampen the membrane? Leave the poor little bugger alone?
Wasn't able to move her to her own run until about ten days in because I needed a second person to help move everything. Should have done this during the night to keep her calm and settled but I didn't think of that at the time.
Moved her and she immediately went un-broody. Gutted. I'd really wanted to have some chicks.
It occurred to me after about forty minutes to cover up the entrance to the nesting box for an hour or so to calm her and hopefully kick her back into being broody. Didn't think it would work but it did!
Wasn't sure if any of the babies would have survived though and I didn't want to risk the hen getting disturbed and going un-broody again by stealing her eggs to candle.
She's been very diligent though so I've had to hand feed her treats everyday or she wouldn't eat.
Hit day twenty/twenty one. No chicks.
Gave it another day. Nothing.
One more day and we stole her eggs to have a listen and see if any sounded like they contained more than liquid (couldn't get candling right with what we had to hand). To our utter surprise, an egg peeped!
We rushed it back to the mother and I checked in on it an hour or so later. A pip! Waited all day with no new activity and then checked on it at ten at night. By this point it should probably have been peeping for quite a long time and hadn't managed to make much more progress. Worried it might run out of oxygen before it hatched, I pinched a tiny hole in the membrane. Beak! Hello baby!
Tucked it back under, thinking that might have been a stupid move as I know membranes can contain a lot of blood but saw no signs of damage.
Checked this morning and it had only zipped a tiny bit all night. Started getting worried. The egg had been hatching for probably about twenty hours and had hardly made any progress but was very vocal in there.
Thought it might be time to intervene (mistake). Carefully broke away egg shell above the air pocket level to give it some help, before realising that might mess-up its zipping plans.
Had to leave for work after that though, nothing more I could do (i.e, no more damage.)
Came back from work and the baby had broken out a little more but was still mostly in the membrane with just a bit of wing and bea --
Bill showing.
A duck bill.
Oh bugger.
I remembered then the light blue egg my dad found outside and how I suggested it might have been one of next door's ducks that laid it. He said it was too blue looking and in truth it did look very much like our blue hen eggs. When I gave our broody eggs I gave her a range of colours. As I put the lightest blue under I thought to myself how funny it would be if that actually was a duck egg, and then forgot about it.
But now I have a duckling that's hatching out on its 25th/6th day and I have no idea what to do! It's still very vocal (and gets very upset if I pick it up.) But I'm not sure if it's A:hatching too early to survive or, B:stuck, because there's still plenty of membrane around it I don't dare touch.
What should I do? Try and give it a little water? Dampen the membrane? Leave the poor little bugger alone?
