Incubators Anonymous

[Sylviaanne]

I have a problem. Posting here since this is where the newborns are talked about. One of my chicks is sitting on it's belly. It is the one that had the suds in the shell with it. I try to get it to stand up but it won't, it was doing better last night than it is now. It is in the brooder now with all the other chicks and my 11 week old Silkie looking out for them. When I pick the baby up it's legs lay up beside its body rather than in front of it.

I dipped it's beak to make it drink but I don't think it has eaten anything yet. What can I do?

 

[Faraday40]

I don't know if there's much you can do, but I'm always surprised at how quickly a chick can recover. I've never had any with leg issues, so I'm not sure if there's some kind of orthotics to make.

The thing that's done miracles for weak chicks is an electrolyte formula. (I have a powder that I add their water or mix a small amount to give with a dropper. The dropper is more risky b/c the chick could drown.) If you don't have any on hand, there's an easy recipe - I added below.

I usually separate a chick that's very weak & not yet walking. After 24 hrs in the ICU, they're usually walking around & can be put with the others.




Homemade Electrolyte Solution for chickens
1 1/4 teaspoon sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt)

1 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)

rounded 1/2 teaspoon potassium chloride (commonly called "Muriate of Potash" >>>Salt substitutes contain mostly potassium chloride)

2 tablespoons glucose (a common source is corn syrup)

add above to 1/2 gallon water
*Some people add unsweetened Kool Aid for flavor/color.

 

[Sylviaanne]

I do have a packet of that stuff, how much do I make at a time? The packet says for a gallon and after one day it's no good. Should I just make the gallon and share it with the other birds? I don't want it to go to waste and a gallon is too much for these babies to drink in one day.

Thanks for the recipe. I have it saved.

 

[Bazy]

Quote:
I make a half gallon with a half package and keep it at room temp for the baby chicks so they don't get a chill when they swallow it! No scientific reason for this, just what I do. By all means let all the chicks have it. A half gallon lasts me right at 24 hours for around 10 chicks.

 

[TeaChick]

Me too!! I may have to go with this theme for future fuzzies!

I think we're going to make either Spiced Velvet cake (with cream cheese frosting, I think) or Best Ever Coffee Cake. Super yum!!!

Also, I'm planning on setting eggs on Monday, so both my appetites will be getting satisfied soon. =D

 

[TeaChick]

I now have about 24-26 babies. LOL I lost count when I got distracted and there are still a few that are not pipped. I hope they are ok. I also have guinea eggs that are due in a week now and I added some of my mix breeds on day 7 to keep them company when they hatch. Hopefully, they will help keep the guineas at home. Hopefully the new baby guineas will help keep the older ones at home too. The older ones are about 2 months old.

I'm thinking about trying to talk DH into guineas. We have ticks like you wouldn't believe!!! (in the woods, not in the house) I understand they're phenomenal at getting rid of them???
Oh, no, wait, "help keep the older ones at home" ???? Do they roam far? I have 2 acres, but it's not fenced and my chickens spend more time in the woods that are just on the other side of the property line than they do in the woods that are actually on our property. (Thankfully, the neighbors don't care.) I free range my chickens; will guineas roam farther than chickens?

Well, I got a nice little surprise today when I candled my Cemani/Orp X eggs!
I swore I had two quitters, one blood ring and one that I just could not see any movement in, at all... not on day 7 or day 10! Denial wouldn't allow me to remove it from the bator so I told myself to give it until Friday...so...
Curiosity got the best of me, as it usually does...and while I candled... there it was, a bouncing chick!
So to any of the 'newbies' to our deep 'seeded' addiction...hear my 'call', try to never assume...and just keep your candlers bright and your eyes peeled!
If it doesn't smell and it isn't oozing or otherwise a hazard to the rest of your 'batch'...leave 'em in there! (MPO)
You just never know...hee-hee!
Good luck to everybody out there with their bators fired up and hatches awaiting!
As the song should go..."Peeperin' ain't easy".... which is why I wholeheartedly salute you!
I am so grateful for this thread...thanks 'gang'...

Yay for bouncing chicks in place of blood rings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I try hard to wait until it's time for me to candle too, but I'm really good at finding an excuse to candle early too, so...

Those are my standards too: no smell, no ooze, no toss. Yup, hope gives you more chicks. =D

Question for the incubator gurus..

What is going to happen if i have to low a humidity.

I have the janoel 8-48 and a smaller janoel for hatching. So incubating weekly

Now in the main bator for 18 days, typically (with default humidity alarm at 40%) we needed to keep both channels on the floor flooded, but not the free floor space in between. Only 1 would drop us below 40% hence alarm goes off. So we kept 2 full. Giving 55-65%

Now 2 hatchings in a row we got 3/5 and 2/5 all the chicks that didnt make it seemed perfectly formed but were either wrong way around or just didnt pip, one was very moist and gooey inside, yellow stuff, still yolk i assume. The other 4 looked like they should have been running around.... Disappointing.

So did a stack of reading and have since been running with only a shot glass of water which gives me about 15-25% and dries up in a couple of days. The first hatching is coming this weekend. Going to candle and lockdown tonight, in the normal high humidity incubator. Ill mark the air cells too.

I dont have multiple humidity meters, i dont weight the eggs or mark airsac development normally. Just candle to see development and movement of the little guys

Im assuming the higher humidity was allowing the chicks to grow too large restricting movement (the ones facing the wrong way as a good example). But what if i have gone to far the otherway... What am i going to see if i have had to low a humidity for the last 2 weeks?

So frustrating to see em not make it. With only one rooster performing out of 3 with flocks.... Grrr they are getting swapped out soon. But the one who is doing the job, my lovely Plymouth Rock who i hand raised is now attacking me. Such a sweet little chick but a brute now.. I think i have 3 of his sons in the brooder now anyway, but anyway im just whinging now. Tell me about what to expect if my humidity has been too low?

Thanks

Disclaimer: I'm not a guru by anyone's definition.
I do dry hatching (but I also live in one of the most humid places in the country, the Deep South). The humidity being around 15-25% for the first 18 days seems a bit high to me. I do put water in for lockdown. My humidity might be that high too, but I've had a lot of the same problem as you described (chicks developing right up until hatch and then either being wrong way 'round or being the right way 'round, but just not hatching.

 

[TeaChick]

I do have a packet of that stuff, how much do I make at a time? The packet says for a gallon and after one day it's no good. Should I just make the gallon and share it with the other birds? I don't want it to go to waste and a gallon is too much for these babies to drink in one day.

Thanks for the recipe. I have it saved.

Whatever I have to do for one chick, I do for them all (except anything weird or invasive), but special water, medications, etc. I treat everyone unless there's a reason not to. So, I, personally, would make up the gallon and then throw out whatever's left the next day.

 

[ladycat]

will guineas roam farther than chickens?

Yes!!!!!!!!!!

 

[maranfarmer563]

My guineas cover a 10 acre soybean field eating insects

 

[Sylviaanne]

I'm thinking about trying to talk DH into guineas. We have ticks like you wouldn't believe!!! (in the woods, not in the house) I understand they're phenomenal at getting rid of them???
Oh, no, wait, "help keep the older ones at home" ???? Do they roam far? I have 2 acres, but it's not fenced and my chickens spend more time in the woods that are just on the other side of the property line than they do in the woods that are actually on our property. (Thankfully, the neighbors don't care.) I free range my chickens; will guineas roam farther than chickens?

Guineas are just as much fun to watch as chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys. They will eat the ticks and lots of other things the chickens here won't. I have a rash on both ankles from not wearing socks when I went out to mess around with my birds. I thought they were chigger bites but it looks like a poison ivy rash. It is not or it would be ALL over me. I am highly allergic to poison ivy. It gets worse every time I get into it.

Whatever was biting me dropped in population when I let the guineas loose. Now, just to be ornery, it was raining a lot when I was being eaten but it was drying up when I let the guineas loose. I didn't get more of a rash nor did I get bit like before. Then after a few weeks, it rained. I started getting bit again. Not like before but still.

I have 8 acres and about 5 miles out back of us is a farm with guineas. I think that is where mine keep disappearing to. This time I am going to band one of their legs with a zip tie and if they vanish, I will go visit this neighbor to see if that is what is happening to my guineas. If it is, I can bring them home but I just don't know what good that will do. First chance they get, they will probably head back that way.