Lock down!

[wishful suburbanite]

I have 20 live hatches.

The one chick with bad feet that was also often trembling died last night. I guess that's to be expected. He was in the second to worst health of the bunch.

The one with the most issues, I had to help out of its egg. It started to zip and went 24 hours without progress. It popped out on its own after I'd made it a hatch in its shell. It has a wry neck and feet that are very curled, though. Its shape is worse than the one that already died, though it's staying pretty active.

18 of the bunch are looking alright to excellent, though. Out of 40 eggs. 3 broken and discarded. About 6 candled clear.

It's day 21 and I'd be surprised if I had any more hatches.

PS: They are so cute I could puke. My favorite actually jumped up into my cupped hand in the brooder and slept there for a minute. Lucky that one seems like the biggest and among the healthiest, so its a keeper, boy or girl.

 

[swords75xlh]

so you can help them out the egg ?

 

[James the Bald]

so you can help them out the egg ?

It's not recommended. You can, but if it's that weak that it can't get out of the egg, it normally won't be able to function on it's own. Helping it out of the egg only prolongs the inevitable.

 

[wishful suburbanite]

Well, I had a couple stragglers. 1 yesterday afternoon, 1 last night. Afternoon one is small and with curled feet. Not in great shape. Night one is small but the feet don't look bad. Could possibly make it okay as a runt as long as it gets around.

22 have hatched live now. 1 gimpy one died. 2 gimpy ones survive. Not sure I have the heart to cull the deformed ones.

As for helping them out of the shell, I never would have done it if I hadn't been looking right at its beak and could see its chest heaving inside for 24 hours. I only chipped the rest of the zip for it, didn't pull it out. It's not a strong chick. It's not as weak as the afternoon straggler because it's not wobbling and shaking but it just shuffles along the floor on its knuckles and its neck more or less stays bent to one side.

So, whether you assist or not, it's up to you.

 

[swords75xlh]

day 17 hard to get a head count




from the eggs i have in the incubator 25 or 30 hatched

 

[underground chickenman]

so you can help them out the egg ?

I don't. Those that are helped often don't survive anyway. I let mother nature take her course in the bator...well, as much as she can for being in an incubator.

 

[wishful suburbanite]

Huh. Actually had another late, late straggler zipping yesterday. Not sure if it's going to get out. Guess I can make the call whether to help this one. The last one I helped is definitely a bit funky and I'll never breed it, would definitely get eaten first by a predator, but it's managing to get around with 20 others and isn't doing all that poorly.

The biggest of my chicks were already starting to get wings feathers as of yesterday. woo! At like 4 days old. The kids grow fast.