Is there something wrong??

[mom2chicklover]

Ok so I'm worried about some eggs... one day my 10 year old started bringing eggs in and putting them in an incubator that has been stored in our garage that I guess he asked my mom for (it was my brother's when he was young). I didn't even realize we had it! I know nothing about hatching eggs or incubators!

He turned it on and put some water in the bottom of it. I didn't really figure the eggs would hatch cuz I thought it had to be "just so" temperatures and humidity.

After about a week, he quit putting eggs in there and I think pretty much turned them every day.

Well... 2 days ago, much to my surprise I heard peeping coming from his room and there was a hatched chick!! Yikes!! I had no idea if we were supposed to leave it in the incubator or take it out. It was still a little damp so we got it out and put in a shoe box in the sunshine until my boy got a heat lamp and bigger container out of the garage. We've bought and raised chicks many times but never hatched any.

By the end of the day we got the priveledge of watching another one hatch. My children were all thrilled!! Actually my husband and I were too!

I've assumed/hoped that some more would hatch. I guess whatever my boy has been doing is right. But now I'm concerned!

Last night 2 more eggs started to crack but they are oozing. One has a peeping chick in it but I'm questioning that it'll live. Its beak is poking out and it's breathing but everything is wet and gooey.

The other egg has gooey stuff that's oozed out and appears to have made the crack stick together. I know that's poor descriptions but I'll try to post pictures. I've been reading about bad eggs and am worried.

Please help this "uneducated" busy mom of 4 little children!

 

[mom2chicklover]

 

[3riverschick]

Give them time to hatch. It can take many hours for a chick to hatch.
either they will or won't. don't try to help them out of the egg. that's why hens lay a lot of eggs. sometimes they hatch ,sometimes they don't . Huge kudos to your son! He did great!
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

The newly hatched chicks need a brooder. get a large plastic tote . put some waffle weave drawer liner in the bottom. go get some chick feed from the store and a water from the store. get a hundred watt incandescent light and use that so it shines down on half the tote. set up the water and feeder so it is not under the light. you should be good to go.
Go to the BYC Gallery and look up pics of Brooders to get more ideas.
Do not use anything slippery like newspaper because the chicks need to be able to grip with their feet.
After the chicks are one-week-old, go to Tractor Supply and buy the white bale of pine shavings, not the yellow bale.
put three inches down on the bottom of the tote. get rid of the waffle weave drawer liner. the chicks can grow up on the pine shavings. change them when they start to smell.
Karen

 

[mom2chicklover]

Thanks! Our first 2 that we're born on Friday are doing great... lively little things... my son is in love!

I know I'm not supposed to touch eggs while hatching but I finally couldn't stand it and picked up the hatching one because it had really made no progress all day. I realized upon closer inspection that it's "fuzz" was stuck to the goo and it couldn't move. It looked half dead so I decided that rather than let it die a sure slow death, I'd help it hatch. I used a wet q-tip and it took quite awhile to get the sticky part unstuck. Then I carefully cracked the rest of the egg. The little chick barely moved but I held it in a towel under the heat lamp. It wiggled a few times then quit breathing. Makes me feel awful!! Even though I'm a grown mom, makes me wanna cry. Hope my son doesn't!!

I fear that the humidity was too low? I'd been watching the water but I guess it must've gone emptier faster than I thought cuz this morn it was out of water and I right away filled it.

I will certainly read up more on this cuz we don't take well to any type of death around here... even ugly chicks!!

 

[mom2chicklover]

Oh and the other chicks didn't have this... but this chick had a bloody glob of something and also green stuff that looked like poop. I assumed it pooped in the egg? But why the bloody glob?