Starting staggered hatching adventure

[Kiki]

 

[Redhead Rae]

The cuteness.

 

[Redhead Rae]

I had to make some modifications to the broody box. This morning, when I went to check on the last egg, I lifted up Molly and she only had 7 babies under her. I look all over the run and I didn't see her other babies. I lifted the box and I found two of the older babies under neath the box, they missed the ramp entirely and were huddled up under the box shivering. Thankfully, they had only been that way for less than a hour or so.

So we used some leftover linoleum to close off the underside of the box.

 

[aart]

So we used some leftover linoleum to close off the underside of the box.

Brilliant!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Unfortunately, I had to cull the last baby.


I ended up pulling its top half out of the shell and it still didn't kick free after a couple hours. I carefully dumped it from the bottom half of the shell and I found it had several loops of intestine (at least 6 inches) still outside its body.

 

[aart]

.. found it had several loops of intestine (at least 6 inches) still outside its body.

Ugh!

 

[Redhead Rae]

Ugh!

Yeah, I was already considering culling it because it had no vitality or spunk. The poor thing seemed like it gave up. The previous chick I had to cull was hard because no matter how mangled its legs were, it still had a great will to live.

 

[Redhead Rae]

Molly and babies
all of them were up under her feathers when we walked up.

 

[aart]

I love how they appear from amongst the feathers!!

 

[Redhead Rae]

I have sad news. One of Molly's babies didn't make it. I went out this afternoon to feed my mom's horses (they are away for the weekend) and Molly was kicking up a fuss. I looked in her pen and I found a baby on its back. I thought it was dead, but when my shadow covered its body it opened its eyes and started bicycling its legs in the air, I picked it up and it looked really shaky and unsteady on its feet. I took it inside and gave it some Nutridrench and water. I had to dip its beak a few times to get it to actually drink. It looked like it perked up after 10-15 min. When I checked on it 2 hours later, I found it under the ramp for the broody box, dead. It looked like it laid down in the shade and died. I'm glad the poor little thing at least didn't die on its back in the sun. Poor thing wasn't as vigorous as the rest of the chicks and was 25% smaller than the other chicks it hatched with. I think it was a failure to thrive baby. I'm now really glad that I grafted the 4 older chicks onto Molly. She does so well with her babies that I think it would be sad for her to only have 4 of them.