low hatch rate and one slightly deformed chick - what have we done wrong? :(

[dannyelle123]

LittleMoss how is your chick doing? I also just had only one lone chick hatch... I was holding out for my other two eggs in the incubator but water candled today and believe they must have died. Not sure if it was the huge jump in humidity when this chick hatched or what...

This is what I found with the lone chick: the way I got it to drink water was scratching my finger in the waterer for about two minutes to get it interested... With my finger I would touch the underside of it's beak so that it would get a taste and continue scratching at the waterer and finally it's drinking by itself... (Dipping it's beak in water was useless) With the starter crumbles I ground them up with a pistol and mortar so they are smaller and scattered them around on the floor and scratched around with my finger until it followed along.

I was thinking that if you have anywhere nearby or maybe check craigslist for another day old chick so that it isn't lonely then that would be a good idea. I myself have another batch of chicks due Friday so I am not concerned... But my experiencing adding a lone chick to a flock is that they never really integrate very well...

Good luck,
Dannyelle

 

[LittleMoss]

Thanks for writing again, Dannyelle.
We are quite worried about the chick - maybe because it couldn't do a lot on the first day (before I read about bandaging its splayed leg), it won't eat or drink by itself. We have been helping it to eat and drink, but it hardly seems to eat anything, and we're worried it can't survive. I've been on this website a lot, and tried just about everything people suggest! Water with Apple Cider Vinegar, organic natural yoghurt, ground up chick crumb, finely mashed egg, even sugar water with chick crumb dissolved in it. Its been doing some poos and wees, so we think something is going down! Its four days old now. It seems quite happy really, but I'm worried it will be losing weight and start to fail if it doesn't eat more. I will try what you said with the water, and try again scattering chick crumb, ground up this time. I think also because of its legs, it probably doesn't like bending over much, which could put it off trying, but it seems as if it really doesn't know what to do!
I've been wondering about it being a lone chick. We are planning to start incubating again this week, with extra thermometers and a hygrometer, but those chicks would be a month younger...

 

[dannyelle123]

Aww I hope it gets the hang of it... Any improvement in its legs? Hopefully it doesn't take much longer to get it's bandages off...

Mine too kinda didn't know what to do, it hatched fine-no splayed legs even though it was a day late... But for the first 2 days just kinda looked around, confused... Now it cries and cries unless it can see me and then wants to be held out of it's brooder. Friday can't come soon enough!

I'm going to try and return the cheap incubator I got as I'm blaming it for the extremely low hatch... It seems like there isn't enough ventilation and it was impossible to get the humidity right-it was either way too low or way too high. I had a secondary thermometer/hygrometer and it read the temp as way too low, but I kept thinking that the secondary thermometer must of been off...

 

[LittleMoss]

Dannyelle - have your chicks hatched? I hope it's gone much better this time. Our lone chick has died, it just got weaker and weaker, which was really sad. We're hoping to hatch again soon.
Hope you've got lots of company for your first chick now!

 

[dannyelle123]

Aww! I'm so sorry, that's sad to hear (( I was hoping she'd pull through, at least she was loved in her short life and you did everything you could... Nature is cruel sometimes.

I have one pip so far... But I have to go to work! Hopefully I don't miss everything...

 

[LittleMoss]

Did some more hatch? I hope so!

 

[dannyelle123]

5/6 and I'm too much of a wimp to eggtopsy the one that didn't hatch! It was an extra large egg and I think it didn't have time to evaporate enough before going into lockdown with the normal sized eggs. I candled it and it seems really liquidy inside

 

[LittleMoss]

Well done! I'm not keen on eggtopsies either! Sounds like you can see enough without cracking that one open. Glad the others are fine, we're on day 6 of our second attempt now.

 

[LittleMoss]

Here is a picture of three of our chicks! We are not sure what kind they are. They hatched out of white eggs, and the person we got them from mentioned White Star and Buff. They also keep marans... so we're not really sure, but we're glad to have some healthy little chicks anyway.

 

[dannyelle123]

Aww... Cute! Congrats!