Hey y'all! So, I'm posting here just for us all to share information, further my education, as well...& Honestly, to confide/vent bc y'all would understand the depth of the emotions with this.
So, first to define "mushy chick" for anyone searching that keyword:
{"Omphalitis" is a condition characterized by infected yolk sacs, often accompanied by unhealed navels in young fowl. It is infectious but noncontagious and is associated with poor regulation of incubation temperature or humidity and marked contamination of the hatching eggs or incubator.}
A couple of things I learned this morning around 2am about chickens & myself:
1.Each loss hurts just as bad each time. You do NOT get used to it. CPR is by far less stressful when performing it on a human vs a baby chick. Baby chicken CPR, hands down, is taxing.
2.Omphalitis is not JUST from poor or unclean conditions.
3. No matter how much I learn about all the different "chicken things", nature continues to show me I will never know enough.
I live in Alabama. Most ppl know our weather is ridiculous. The only thing consistent about it is the inconsistency. A couple of days ago it was 70° weather that dropped down in the 20s within 48 hours.
Queen Latifah, my silkie does what she wants when she wants. Period. And I've been fighting her for some time with going broody. Ultimately, she won when I discovered that what I thought was deceased egg laying amongst my girls due to winter was actually stolen and hidden eggs by Latifah that she was sitting.
Fast forward & to the point: we hit another cold snap a few days ago. I heard a baby that had pipped, and even though it was cold, I decided to trust her to sit and hatch it. I went out a few hours later and she had rolled the egg out and away from the nest, rejecting it. I thought it was dead, but then she chirped, so I rushed inside with it. The egg was ice cold and had been exposed for a while, judging by that. I mark my eggs and this baby was early... Like give or take a week. I was still going to try to let things happen naturally, but the baby was weak & the membrane was already shrink wrapping it.
I helped her hatch. Another subject for another day.
My heart sank when I saw she hadn't fully absorbed the yolk sak, but I just kept her in front of a heater and left the sack on her in hopes she would absorb as much as she could on her own and let the umbilical cord dry up on its own, being sure not to take it off.
She did good for the most part. As well as you'd expect. She started trying to walk. Finally started to drink a little. Slept a lot.
Her abdomen was extended upon hatch... Real poofy, and she hasn't even grown down around that area. I mentioned it to my husband & we thought, ok, maybe it's just an early hatch thing bc fluids or something.
But after losing her last night/this morning, I'm pretty sure it was due to umbilical infection.
So, have you any of you experienced more crucial circumstances due to weather? I'm having late hatches, early hatches, and underdeveloped eggs. I try to keep a constant watch over my birds and interact throughout the day with them... & Being completely honest, idk if it's my broody hen that's the problem, the weather conditions or just things "that happen sometimes".
I don't have an incubator, & not sure when I can afford one. My husband is a retired disabled veteran, so income is limited & we're starting from nothing (we literally lost everything last year) & are trying to build a farm up & hopefully start building our home this summer, but staying in a camper in the meantime. So incubating my own eggs right now isn't feasible. But I'm open to suggestions bc I would like to purchase one in the near future...& Reviews are always so mixed.
However, I would still appreciate any advice, knowledge, etc...
Every life out here is just as important as the other. I'll fight for a dying baby chick as hard as I'll fight for a $900 calf. So it just breaks my heart, each one that I lost. And I've lost 5 of my birds within the last two weeks... I've been keeping chickens for three years & this is the most I've lost due to natural circumstances (I've lost my original flock, except for two, all to humans).
So, first to define "mushy chick" for anyone searching that keyword:
{"Omphalitis" is a condition characterized by infected yolk sacs, often accompanied by unhealed navels in young fowl. It is infectious but noncontagious and is associated with poor regulation of incubation temperature or humidity and marked contamination of the hatching eggs or incubator.}
A couple of things I learned this morning around 2am about chickens & myself:
1.Each loss hurts just as bad each time. You do NOT get used to it. CPR is by far less stressful when performing it on a human vs a baby chick. Baby chicken CPR, hands down, is taxing.
2.Omphalitis is not JUST from poor or unclean conditions.
3. No matter how much I learn about all the different "chicken things", nature continues to show me I will never know enough.
I live in Alabama. Most ppl know our weather is ridiculous. The only thing consistent about it is the inconsistency. A couple of days ago it was 70° weather that dropped down in the 20s within 48 hours.
Queen Latifah, my silkie does what she wants when she wants. Period. And I've been fighting her for some time with going broody. Ultimately, she won when I discovered that what I thought was deceased egg laying amongst my girls due to winter was actually stolen and hidden eggs by Latifah that she was sitting.
Fast forward & to the point: we hit another cold snap a few days ago. I heard a baby that had pipped, and even though it was cold, I decided to trust her to sit and hatch it. I went out a few hours later and she had rolled the egg out and away from the nest, rejecting it. I thought it was dead, but then she chirped, so I rushed inside with it. The egg was ice cold and had been exposed for a while, judging by that. I mark my eggs and this baby was early... Like give or take a week. I was still going to try to let things happen naturally, but the baby was weak & the membrane was already shrink wrapping it.
I helped her hatch. Another subject for another day.
My heart sank when I saw she hadn't fully absorbed the yolk sak, but I just kept her in front of a heater and left the sack on her in hopes she would absorb as much as she could on her own and let the umbilical cord dry up on its own, being sure not to take it off.
She did good for the most part. As well as you'd expect. She started trying to walk. Finally started to drink a little. Slept a lot.
Her abdomen was extended upon hatch... Real poofy, and she hasn't even grown down around that area. I mentioned it to my husband & we thought, ok, maybe it's just an early hatch thing bc fluids or something.
But after losing her last night/this morning, I'm pretty sure it was due to umbilical infection.
So, have you any of you experienced more crucial circumstances due to weather? I'm having late hatches, early hatches, and underdeveloped eggs. I try to keep a constant watch over my birds and interact throughout the day with them... & Being completely honest, idk if it's my broody hen that's the problem, the weather conditions or just things "that happen sometimes".
I don't have an incubator, & not sure when I can afford one. My husband is a retired disabled veteran, so income is limited & we're starting from nothing (we literally lost everything last year) & are trying to build a farm up & hopefully start building our home this summer, but staying in a camper in the meantime. So incubating my own eggs right now isn't feasible. But I'm open to suggestions bc I would like to purchase one in the near future...& Reviews are always so mixed.
However, I would still appreciate any advice, knowledge, etc...
Every life out here is just as important as the other. I'll fight for a dying baby chick as hard as I'll fight for a $900 calf. So it just breaks my heart, each one that I lost. And I've lost 5 of my birds within the last two weeks... I've been keeping chickens for three years & this is the most I've lost due to natural circumstances (I've lost my original flock, except for two, all to humans).
