May Hatch Thread--Fill up those bators n' broodies!

[el pollo rey]

Happy news here! With my staggered hatch of Welsummers, EE's/misc and FBCM we're on day 24 for some and day 22 for others. So far we have 11 healthy Welsummer with 1 more trying to hatch, 7 FBCM with 3 more either pipped or trying to hatch, and then 3 others of the misc types.

Looks like 6 possible dead Welsummer that I haven't candled yet. Last night I started doing eggtopsys and had 3 advanced ones that had died. One was my olive egger which broke my heart. I think it must have died around day 17-19 based on how it looked..the baby was HUGE! And was not positioned right, so I think it was just too big maybe?

Then on my 4th eggtopsy I had an awful experience. I candled few times and did not see ouor hear anything so I opened the air cell. Still nothing. Opened it more down to the membrane area and just as I barely barely brushed it with my finger it started to bleed and showed movement.

I quick ran to get flour on it but used too much and made a mess. So I put it back in the bator for several hours and went to check on it. It was clearly dying based on the breathing movements and I felt awful. I was going to see about helping again but it died while I was trying to decide so I quickly started opening to see if I could do anything. The chick was very twisted into itself and would never have pipped. It also had what I can only assume was part or all of its brain outside of its head.

So this chick would never have made it. It eases me of my guilt just a tiny bit but I wonder what on earth happened that caused it to develop like that!

Any ideas? My incubating had gone without a hitch at all. I kind of wonder if it was the quality of the eggs. I purchased 2 batches from different people locally and all the Welsummers were from one guy. A lot of them were porous and I have a much lower hatch rate from them compared to the EE's from me, and the FBCM from this other lady.

Keep those shells crackin !

 

[oesdog]

Hi Guys - we had to intervine a wee bit because she was getting very weak.
We found out why. She would never have gotten out alone as her foot was tight over her head so she couldn;t move to zip.

She is more or less out - but we had to get a good bit of shell off in order to free her head. Which meant we burst a vein getting the membrane over the head. The membrane was drying up too. She is chirping away but we are worried about the blood a bit. Nothing could be done about the vein as the poor critter would never have been able to zip in that position also there was no room for her to manouver round as she is a big chick! We dare not help more as the temp was quite low and chicky was getting cold. I am glad we intervined when the chirping was getting weaker. I would not have known she could not zip otherwize. How can a chick grow with its head pinned like that so there is no way for it to move to zip????? It is a bit cruel really.


Oes

 

[melina90]

I quick ran to get flour on it but used too much and made a mess. So I put it back in the bator for several hours and went to check on it. It was clearly dying based on the breathing movements and I felt awful.

I was going to see about helping again but it died while I was trying to decide so I quickly started opening to see if I could do anything. The chick was very twisted into itself and would never have pipped. It also had what I can only assume was part or all of its brain outside of its head.

So this chick would never have made it.

It eases me of my guilt just a tiny bit but I wonder what on earth happened that caused it to develop like that!

Any ideas? My incubating had gone without a hitch at all. I kind of wonder if it was the quality of the eggs. I purchased 2 batches from different people locally and all the Welsummers were from one guy. A lot of them were porous and I have a much lower hatch rate from them compared to the EE's from me, and the FBCM from this other lady.

I have heard of this before, so it happens - but rarely... I have no idea what causes it though, it's probably one of those things that just "happens". Different factors like inbreeding, incubation temperature/humidity, the age of eggs incubated, diet of the parent birds, certain genotypes etc can be things that might affect how often this occur but all in all I think there's really nothing you can do to totally prevent it.

Anyways, glad the rest of your hatch is going good!

 

[el pollo rey]

[COLOR=800080]Glad to hear everything okay el pollo rey. I was checking and it looks like there has been alot of quake activity in around Panama the last few weeks. Scary to me. I am on the east coast an in the last 4 years we have had two minor quakes around Delaware where I am originally from. I was at work both times. The first we thought was caused by the trash truck dropping the trash bin and the next one we knew what it was.[/COLOR] Things kept shaking. I can't imagine something so close though. I'll take a hurricane over a earthquake. I am more familiar with them.

. I know what you mean there for sure , I'm a midwesterner myself and had never felt the ground move till about six years ago . The area is very active with both plate tectonics and volcanic the locals don't seem to notice much under a 4.0 but I feel every jolt . This morning was quite big over 5.5 and I am only about 120 miles from the epicenter so it was a eye opener for sure last year we had one centered about 70 miles from me and it was almost a 7 and I can say it is quite different than 6 and under the ground kinda rolls up and down like a wave and is quite difficult to walk till it settles down it Realy is enough to freek you out lol

 

[noahsmom]

Lock Down Day!!

I'm really not seeing a great turn out for these eggs, just keeping my fingers crossed I at least have two I'd be sad if only one hatched and it was lonely!
I hope everyone elses hatches go well!

 

[el pollo rey]

Lock Down Day!! e
I'm really not seeing a great turn out for these eggs, just keeping my fingers crossed I at least have two I'd be sad if only one hatched and it was lonely!
I hope everyone elses hatches go well!

. Good luk !

 

[melina90]

Hi Guys - we had to intervine a wee bit because she was getting very weak.
We found out why. She would never have gotten out alone as her foot was tight over her head so she couldn;t move to zip.

She is more or less out - but we had to get a good bit of shell off in order to free her head. Which meant we burst a vein getting the membrane over the head. The membrane was drying up too. She is chirping away but we are worried about the blood a bit. Nothing could be done about the vein as the poor critter would never have been able to zip in that position also there was no room for her to manouver round as she is a big chick! We dare not help more as the temp was quite low and chicky was getting cold. I am glad we intervined when the chirping was getting weaker. I would not have known she could not zip otherwize. How can a chick grow with its head pinned like that so there is no way for it to move to zip????? It is a bit cruel really.


Oes

Congratulations! Hope the bloodloss wasnt too much for her.

 

[oesdog]

I think it is going to be fine. It has been a while since we did it and she is looking stronger. She is quite content to stay in that possition though as she is very tired. She keeps going to sleep but when the Bator light comes on she gets startled and her little head comes up like she has had a big shock and then her foot and wing move. But she settles back down.
Yes the vein bled a bit but then it looks more due to the warm water we used. She is still in half the egg and you can see she fills the entire shell tight. THere would have been no way for her to free her own foot so that she could move her head to zip. I hope she survives ok. Humidity is 62 and Temp 38. She seems to be just resting. The whole ordeal has tired her out. She must have struggled so much to get her beak into a possition to pip at all. What a lucky girl and I was going to turn the bator off last night! I wonder if anyone else will make an appearence after all the bator lid has been off and on for quite a bit as we have had to do this in stages so she didn;t get too cold. It is a pitty about the vein but it was tight over the foot and the foot tight over her head. I think she is glad she can wiggle her foot now!

Oes - OMG

 

[el pollo rey]

Hi Guys - we had to intervine a wee bit because she was getting very weak. We found out why. She would never have gotten out alone as her foot was tight over her head so she couldn;t move to zip. She is more or less out - but we had to get a good bit of shell off in order to free her head. Which meant we burst a vein getting the membrane over the head. The membrane was drying up too. She is chirping away but we are worried about the blood a bit. Nothing could be done about the vein as the poor critter would never have been able to zip in that position also there was no room for her to manouver round as she is a big chick! We dare not help more as the temp was quite low and chicky was getting cold. I am glad we intervined when the chirping was getting weaker. I would not have known she could not zip otherwize. How can a chick grow with its head pinned like that so there is no way for it to move to zip????? It is a bit cruel really. Oes

. She is a big girl ! Way to go oes

 

[oesdog]

She is beautiful
I have to keep checking her. She is wiggling her leg and wing but is still firmly on her side in the egg. I hope after she sleeps and the blood dries up she will get up?

I am glad to have her after all the deaths this year as we lost 4 adult birds since feb.

DH calls this one chicken little?

Re: size I thought they only got real big if the humidity was too high? Mine was between 50-55? Also someone said about the Bator running cool due to late hatch again? It has always sat between 99.5 -102 a bit on the high side!
Oes - Dh is delighted with "his baby!"