Only my fellow chicken peeps would understand...

[newchickenfamily]

So I buy $45+ worth of Wheaten Marans eggs from a very nice seller here on BYC. I begin to incubate said eggs. Things go OK and then I experience bator problems during incubation. Only ONE egg hatches. My most expensive little chick ever. I run out to buy 2 other chicks from feed store to keep lone chick company.

Fast forward ONE month (today):

Chicks have been protected and coddled in brooder. Today is the FIRST day I let them venture outside in a secluded/protected little area where they can run right back into their safe little house. Things are fine. I have done this very same thing many times before with other batches of chicks.

So I peek out my window to check on them. I only see 2 feed store chicks. My most expensive chick ever is nowhere to be seen. I go out to investigate. Most expensive chick ever has vanished into thin air. So now all I have left are the 2 feed store chicks that I didn't really want to begin with.

Even worse was that I was certain that most expensive chick ever was a pullet. No roosterly tendencies AT ALL.

All I could do was

Only my fellow chicken nuts would understand the disappointment....I could tell my real life friends and they would only feign sympathy. So off I go to the Hatching Eggs auction part of the forum....

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Oh how sad and frustrating! I hope you have better luck with the next hatch.

There are over 1000 people on the forum right now who would understand (They won't all see your post, but they would understand how you feel if they did)

 

[WriterofWords]

Maybe that little sucker is hiding and will show up again? I understand how you feel, it's just the most sinking, nauseous feeling ever.

 

[Pinky]

Sounds like my luck

 

[SilverPhoenix]

Oh no! That is so sad and disappointing.

Poor baby... There's always a possibility she will show up again, but...well, I wouldn't get my hopes up either.

Reminds me of the time I hatched three seramas from some shipped eggs. I loved those babies so much! They made it to about four months, and the little cockerel ended up killing my icelandic chicks (same age but bigger, just put them in together for a little while) and then my mom put him in an enclosure that he could escape from. He did escape, and despite running around calling him forever, he never came home. Then my little black and white pullet, Magpie, suddenly lost use of her legs. It was almost like Marek's, but I've never had any sort of Marek's anywhere and it wasn't typical of Marek's for some other reasons. I kept her in the house for a week, hand feeding her special foods, medications, and so on, but she passed a week later.

Thankfully at least the third pullet is alive and well. I also once had a cockerel and two pullets die mysteriously with no warning whatsoever, and absolutely no cause I can find or think of.

Sometimes these awful things just happen no matter what we do to try and prevent them, and no matter how it breaks our hearts...

I'm so sorry, and may your next hatch go wonderfully and have nothing but success!

 

[kerrysmommy]

im sooo sorry i have had a fox come and get most of my chickens i loved them dearly especially the retared one who had a crooked beak she followed me around everyware and even watched me while i was in the pool sometimes

srry bout ur loss ik how u feel