~ Silkie Hatch-a-Long August 2015 (SHIPPED EGGS GONE WRONG!!) ~

[silkienrescues]

He's so cute!

I love the guitar idea!!!

He will look great in white jacket and trousers with sequins!

 

[silkienrescues]

Thank you! I'll post a pic if I can figure out the spoilers. Don't want to upset anyone. The beak was pointed down toward the pointy end. After it passed I went looking for it. I couldn't see it because it was down further then the air cell was. Maybe if I had opened the membrane and fished around for it, I could have saved it?? It was a really beautiful chick. I hate that none of them internally pipped and all died!! What a shame. I wanted paints but the breeder said she just sold the whole paint pen. So I'm getting porcelain, splash, and partridge. Not sure how many but I told her the whole story and she said she would send as many as she could collect all weekend. That last hatch was my worst hatch ever!!! Never lost the whole lot!! I agree, we should start a new silkie hatching thread! I'm glad you got local eggs!! I can't wait to see your partridge. I remember now, you telling me about those eggs. Good luck for lots of babies!!!

Yes its not nice seeing upsetting photos without a warning. Scarlet i found because she had broken the inner membrane and I saw the fluid. I'm trying to think how I will set my guidelines for intervening, and deepbluespace I totally respect your experience, but I would have to go further looking, because all the others dead would be too much for me not to search more, as it would look like a certain death otherwise.
Ruby was the yolk absorbed?
I'm expecting with the veins receded the yolk was absorbed, but not having breathed I would not be surprised to see the umbilicus still open though and for the lungs not to be fully functioning. I'm a midwife and looking at what happens to circulation in babies with their first breaths. So the important thing would be get air to the chick, then keep it moist and warm, leave for a few hours or until it begins being active itself. This is my first thoughts want to do more research, and hope not to have to use any of this. the important start point is identifying the hatch start point....very hard for you Ruby when not 1 pipped externally, and with the delay possible from the cooling.
No one else is there with us when we make decisions, but the more I can understand the process the better i think. studying those 6 common malposition pics on assisted hatching might be helpful.

 

[darkbluespace]

Yes its not nice seeing upsetting photos without a warning. Scarlet i found because she had broken the inner membrane and I saw the fluid. I'm trying to think how I will set my guidelines for intervening, and deepbluespace I totally respect your experience, but I would have to go further looking, because all the others dead would be too much for me not to search more, as it would look like a certain death otherwise.
Ruby was the yolk absorbed?
I'm expecting with the veins receded the yolk was absorbed, but not having breathed I would not be surprised to see the umbilicus still open though and for the lungs not to be fully functioning. I'm a midwife and looking at what happens to circulation in babies with their first breaths. So the important thing would be get air to the chick, then keep it moist and warm, leave for a few hours or until it begins being active itself. This is my first thoughts want to do more research, and hope not to have to use any of this. the important start point is identifying the hatch start point....very hard for you Ruby when not 1 pipped externally, and with the delay possible from the cooling.
No one else is there with us when we make decisions, but the more I can understand the process the better i think. studying those 6 common malposition pics on assisted hatching might be helpful.

When assisting, if their beak is not at the air cell, I do try to get air to them, but in my experience, they need to get used to breathing air for some time before they can come out of the shell at all or it is just too much a shock to their system. The thing about a chick having its beak right next to the yolk is that if the chick can get air then the yolk is somewhat exposed and that does not seem to go well. I try to hold myself back and try to get air to the beak without pulling the head out as I have found they are more likely to survive. Sometimes we don't do enough or do too much or not the right thing and it is all a great learning experience in this strange hobby of hatching that we have. I love that there are people like you all to share all the parts of it with...

 

[silkienrescues]

When assisting, if their beak is not at the air cell, I do try to get air to them, but in my experience, they need to get used to breathing air for some time before they can come out of the shell at all or it is just too much a shock to their system. The thing about a chick having its beak right next to the yolk is that if the chick can get air then the yolk is somewhat exposed and that does not seem to go well. I try to hold myself back and try to get air to the beak without pulling the head out as I have found they are more likely to survive. Sometimes we don't do enough or do too much or not the right thing and it is all a great learning experience in this strange hobby of hatching that we have. I love that there are people like you all to share all the parts of it with...

I was wrried about offending you by commenting as i did, and of course absolutely didnt intend that. Thank you for adding more knowledge to this problem area. Can well see how a drying yolk is a problem. Could be being exposed too much too quick could be too much for the air sacks in the lungs to open and allow surfactant to be produced enough to stop them sticking to themselves as they breath out.

Now there is a bigger problem...how do you tell your husband we need to move to a farm so as to keep hatching?

 

[RubyNala97]

They wont sit still, but here are a couple photos... Can you see the naked neck? : )

Is the nn, the first one?? So completely adorable!

Yes, looks like porcelain! Beautiful!!

That's what I'm hoping for. I've seen some gorgeous paints and I'll not stop until I have one!

Me too! I'm dying for paints now. But I have a breeder all lined up for paints. She's on BYC and I've spoken to other members who have had great hatches with her shipped eggs! These are my next purchase!
http://m.ebay.com/itm/12-Bearded-Pa...3D161805552012&_trksid=p2056116.c100408.m2460

@darkbluespace
I love the Show Girls, but husband said they look too "weird". He also said the same about Frizzles. He doesn't know that there were a couple of each in the pens I got the eggs from. If they hatch I'm just going to be like "Wow! How did THAT get in there?"

Elvis... I might have to make a tiny guitar for him...

0/height/400[/IMG]

I LOVE him!!!

Yes its not nice seeing upsetting photos without a warning. Scarlet i found because she had broken the inner membrane and I saw the fluid. I'm trying to think how I will set my guidelines for intervening, and deepbluespace I totally respect your experience, but I would have to go further looking, because all the others dead would be too much for me not to search more, as it would look like a certain death otherwise.
Ruby was the yolk absorbed?
I'm expecting with the veins receded the yolk was absorbed, but not having breathed I would not be surprised to see the umbilicus still open though and for the lungs not to be fully functioning. I'm a midwife and looking at what happens to circulation in babies with their first breaths. So the important thing would be get air to the chick, then keep it moist and warm, leave for a few hours or until it begins being active itself. This is my first thoughts want to do more research, and hope not to have to use any of this. the important start point is identifying the hatch start point....very hard for you Ruby when not 1 pipped externally, and with the delay possible from the cooling.
No one else is there with us when we make decisions, but the more I can understand the process the better i think. studying those  6 common malposition pics on assisted hatching might be helpful.

I did not know you were a midwife! I've used midwives for all my pregnancies. The first was a homebirth attempt! That is wonderful! My dream career is to be a lactation consultant! Anyway, see you are comfortable with blood, fluid, life, death...etc. I am very uncomfortable going into an egg that has not internally pipped. My first batch of eggs, they were shipped, I only had one egg left over that didn't hatch. 2 days after the hatch I wanted to do my first eggtopsie. So I opened the egg, I opened the whole air cell and the chick was alive! I thought "I have to get it out of the membrane...it's going to die." I didn't know what to look for. The membrane had heavy veins and I just cut it open, blood everywhere, and the chick died. Perfect chick, yoke absorbed but horrible shape air cell. I cried the whole entire night and vowed never to open a membrane again. But as I hatched more and learned more I became comfortable with eggtopsies, and some assisting. But it's really the chicks that are still under the membrane that get me. I get nervous. My stomach gets butterflies. My hands get shaky. I think with more experience (hands-on) this will get easier. Next year my chickens will be laying there own eggs and I can hatch them whenever I want. It's going to take lots more reading and speaking to people with experience and then hands on experience for me to get comfortable. I don't know if that chick had the yoke absorbed. I only took his head out and that was it. It was a beautiful chick. Looked almost alive. I read an article about hatching condor eggs. And if the baby does not pip internally, and the beak is not directly under the air cell, they use a special machine with radio-waves to locate where the beak in under the shell. Then they use a drill and drill a whole into the shell directly over the beak. That's the only way they have had success. Even then they said very risky. As the baby needs to start breathing oxygen in order for its body to trigger certain responses for it to be healthy. This article said it all better then I am but you get the drift. Many people won't even attempt to help a chick that does not internally pip. It's great to talk to you and darkbluespace and pick your brains!

 

[darkbluespace]

I was wrried about offending you by commenting as i did, and of course absolutely didnt intend that. Thank you for adding more knowledge to this problem area. Can well see how a drying yolk is a problem. Could be being exposed too much too quick could be too much for the air sacks in the lungs to open and allow surfactant to be produced enough to stop them sticking to themselves as they breath out.

Now there is a bigger problem...how do you tell your husband we need to move to a farm so as to keep hatching?

Not offended

I was just clarifying my reasoning. If you have a different experience that works for you I am very open to hearing that. I do try to speak from my experience and think others can have their experiences so I didn't intend to come off like a know it all. I guess I have come to a place where I have accepted that not every chick can be saved, though I put a good amount of effort into trying, I am finding that trying less can be better sometimes. I have a special place in my heart for all the little birds I incubate that don't make it in this world.

I think it is cool that you are a midwife. I had a home birth with my one and only son 10 yrs ago... wouldn't do it any other way! Interesting the few of us are all alternative that way.

As for moving to a farm... start planting seeds... Wouldn't it be so nice to live in the country?.. all that fresh air... all that space... Then he won't be shocked when you tell him you want to really do it!

 

[darkbluespace]

Is the nn, the first one?? So completely adorable!
Yes, looks like porcelain! Beautiful!!
Me too! I'm dying for paints now. But I have a breeder all lined up for paints. She's on BYC and I've spoken to other members who have had great hatches with her shipped eggs! These are my next purchase!
http://m.ebay.com/itm/12-Bearded-Pa...3D161805552012&_trksid=p2056116.c100408.m2460

I LOVE him!!!
I did not know you were a midwife! I've used midwives for all my pregnancies. The first was a homebirth attempt! That is wonderful! My dream career is to be a lactation consultant! Anyway, see you are comfortable with blood, fluid, life, death...etc. I am very uncomfortable going into an egg that has not internally pipped. My first batch of eggs, they were shipped, I only had one egg left over that didn't hatch. 2 days after the hatch I wanted to do my first eggtopsie. So I opened the egg, I opened the whole air cell and the chick was alive! I thought "I have to get it out of the membrane...it's going to die." I didn't know what to look for. The membrane had heavy veins and I just cut it open, blood everywhere, and the chick died. Perfect chick, yoke absorbed but horrible shape air cell. I cried the whole entire night and vowed never to open a membrane again. But as I hatched more and learned more I became comfortable with eggtopsies, and some assisting. But it's really the chicks that are still under the membrane that get me. I get nervous. My stomach gets butterflies. My hands get shaky. I think with more experience (hands-on) this will get easier. Next year my chickens will be laying there own eggs and I can hatch them whenever I want. It's going to take lots more reading and speaking to people with experience and then hands on experience for me to get comfortable. I don't know if that chick had the yoke absorbed. I only took his head out and that was it. It was a beautiful chick. Looked almost alive. I read an article about hatching condor eggs. And if the baby does not pip internally, and the beak is not directly under the air cell, they use a special machine with radio-waves to locate where the beak in under the shell. Then they use a drill and drill a whole into the shell directly over the beak. That's the only way they have had success. Even then they said very risky. As the baby needs to start breathing oxygen in order for its body to trigger certain responses for it to be healthy. This article said it all better then I am but you get the drift. Many people won't even attempt to help a chick that does not internally pip. It's great to talk to you and darkbluespace and pick your brains!

Those eggs look awesome, well, the birds they came from do!

That first one is one of the naked necks... their necks are just so short right now ; )

That is interesting about the Condor eggs...I have seen photos of the awkward little things. With some of my ducklings that are backwards in the shell, I can often find a spot of discoloration where they are trying to pip and just open a tiny spot there. It mostly just works on white eggs, blue eggs are harder.

I think it is easier to get used to assisting eggs from your own birds because it feels like there is more room for trial and error. Paying for eggs raises the stakes a lot for me and with shipped eggs I have only have one successful experience.

 

[RubyNala97]

Those eggs look awesome, well, the birds they came from do! 

That first one is one of the naked necks... their necks are just so short right now ; )

That is interesting about the Condor eggs...I have seen photos of the awkward little things.    With some of my ducklings that are backwards in the shell, I can often find a spot of discoloration where they are trying to pip and just open a tiny spot there.  It mostly just works on white eggs, blue eggs are harder.  

I think it is easier to get used to assisting eggs from your own birds because it feels like there is more room for trial and error.   Paying for eggs raises the stakes a lot for me and with shipped eggs I have only have one successful experience.

That's exactly what I feel like with these shipped eggs. Once I can get them from the backyard, I think I will feel a little better about assisting/experimenting. I've heard where people felt the opposite. When paying they would do anything to get those chicks out alive. So I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling that way! Lol. Have you hatched call ducks? I've already ordered call duck eggs for spring!
And yes, I could just make out the back of the neck being bare in that photo. I'd love to see updated pics as he/she grows!!

 

[silkienrescues]

i have started a september silkie hatch thread for a positive start to what is for me spring for you a waning summer. Hope to see everyone there.
Ruby just looked at your egg seller pics....ha ha youre little ones wont get a cold head in winter!!! So hope they come out just like the parents. Must say i trim the feathers on my last silkies big head puffs, they just seemed to handicapped seeing compared to the others.

 

[RubyNala97]

i have started a september silkie hatch thread for a positive start to what is for me spring for you a waning summer. Hope to see everyone there.
Ruby just looked at your egg seller pics....ha ha youre little ones wont get a cold head in winter!!! So hope they come out just like the parents. Must say i trim the feathers on my last silkies big head puffs, they just seemed to handicapped seeing compared to the others.

Can you post a link for the new thread? I haven't ordered those yet. Those will be my next batch, hopefully. If you want to see the breeder for the eggs I'm getting today, you can look her up on Facebook. Look up "Magnolia Silkies" they are beautiful! I'll post my update in the new thread!