- Nov 15, 2012
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Woke up this morning to two very sad things I haven't dealt with before. First, found a chick randomly dead in the brooder. Brooder temp is good, everyone has access to food and water. This was the last chick to hatch and the humidity had gone a bit high, but it seemed okay when I put it in the brooder yesterday. When I examined it, there was what looked like yolk and a little blood in it's mouth. Anyone ever heard of this or know what it is? The abdomen on this chick seemed a bit weird too, pouched out on one side, not the usual rolly polly new chick belly. Second, when the humidity was high, I had a chick hatch with some unabsorbed yolk. Normally, I'm able to keep a chick of this type in the 'bator and it absorbs enough that the remaining whatever is on the outside dries up and it's all fine. I've had that happen a few times. However, this one didn't absorb and didn't dry up. When I pulled it from the 'bator this morning to check on it, there was quite a bit of dried blood around the navel area. But the crazy thing was, the chick started to get antsy and struggled in my hand to turn back over and as it did so, what looked like liquified yolk or something shot out of it's navel. It was like the contents of it's gut was draining. I had to cull, I just didn't know what else to do and I was fairly certain whatever was making this happen was not going to be compatible with life in the long run (plus, I can't keep it in the incubator forever trying to heal it). Maybe some kind of perforated intestines or something? I know that the issues this one had was from the humidity levels. I never have unabsorbed yolk like that otherwise. I also had one with a curled toe and I never have that except when humidity is too high. The curled toe chick is doing great. I made it a little sandal and it's getting around just fine. This was a weird hatch. They popped like popcorn in two waves and then there were a couple stragglers, but all of them done before the end of day 21. And I was at work for part of it, so I wasn't around to adjust the humidity when it got too high (when they pop so quickly sometimes I have to remove the sponge so the only added humidity is that from the drying chicks. Then when they are mostly dry, I put it back. That's the problem with styrobators without any kind of humidity pump and regulation system. The fan can only disperse the moisture so quickly and sometimes it's not fast enough. I could tell this was why a few of my eggs didn't hatch, they appeared to have drowned.