Simulated Natural Nest Incubation~Experiment #1 So it begins....

[spaceylocust]

Have a feeling this one is a male...just looks like a male chick to me.

Male chick......male chick....... oxymoron?

 

[lularat]

Hootie is one cute chick...congratulations. Keeping fingers crossed that the rest of the brood will follow soon.

 

[Beekissed]

Well, it comes time to evaluate if I determine this experiment has been a success. I would say, "No, not really." In one regard it has potential for producing a chick and that can be said of many incubation methods. But simulating a broody hatch? That's another goal altogether.

A broody would have assisted chicks that had internally pipped but had not broken through the shell, of that I have no doubt. I've never found a fully formed, but dead, chick at the end of a broody hatch. But I did in my own.....I'm not a broody and cannot determine exactly where to open a hole so that my chick might breathe unless I were to use a stethoscope. Broodies are wonderfully designed by God to do this job and I am woefully not.

Yesterday these were living and breathing chicks that just needed a hand out but I read an article that said to wait and not rush the hatch and so I waited...but I think a broody would have known better, purely by God-given instinct. Two large and healthy chicks that couldn't get through these hard shells that I have trouble cracking for breakfast in the morning, so no wonder. Experiment over.

 

[fisherlady]

oh, Bee.... so sorry they didn't make it.

 

[Shellz]

Am I the only one who just picture an IV bag filled with broth? No? ... Ok, just me then

Ha, ha! Just catching up here & just had to laugh at that. Thanks for the lolz.

 

[Shellz]

Well, you had some success Bee. Sorry it wasn't a total success, but I find that most hatches are never 100% anyway. Broodies naturally rule in this department & I still appreciate your dedication to this experiment. So many variables come into play, that its hard to contemplate them all without going totally insane. Kudos to you on a job well done! Will you attempt it again?

 

[AmericanMom]

So sorry Bee...

 

[enola]

I am sending you hugs, Bee. This thread has been part of my life since day one.......

Now you have the perfect excuse for getting those meat chicks

 

[Beekissed]

Well, you had some success Bee. Sorry it wasn't a total success, but I find that most hatches are never 100% anyway. Broodies naturally rule in this department & I still appreciate your dedication to this experiment.

So many variables come into play, that its hard to contemplate them all without going totally insane.

Kudos to you on a job well done! Will you attempt it again?

That's the question, isn't it? Will I attempt it one more time, wiser by two dead chicks? I currently have 18 eggs in a box gathered just yesterday that I was intending for a new nest...big, fine, and as viable as my flock are going to put out this year....but do I do it? Right now I'm discouraged and saddened by two chicks that died needlessly for my experimentation and inexperience and that is always what I have hated about reading on incubation threads...the people just keep baking chicks willy nilly, no matter how many come out crippled, vitamin deficient, or dead in the shell.

As if those are not a life that was created intentionally, but mere play dollies for those obsessed with hatching more and more chicks, cheerfully and self-deprecatingly using words like "chicken math".

I don't ever want to take a life that lightly and so I will pray on this today and in the coming days, turning it over to the Lord. Right now I don't have the heart to try again but way in the back there is a hope for these new eggs, provided in just 2 days time, as this particular flock reaches its peak performance. These big, clean-legged chicks out of these shells gave me hope for producing some replacement layers, even if they are mutts.

I just don't know...I think I'm just sad today, is all. All I can think to do is pray, which is always the best decision.

 

[Beekissed]

I am sending you hugs, Bee. This thread has been part of my life since day one.......

Now you have the perfect excuse for getting those meat chicks

Thank you! Yes, I'm on the hunt for some meat chicks tomorrow to keep this one company and for warmth. If I can't get meat chicks I'll look for just any ol' packing peanut chick to give him some siblings.