- Apr 2, 2013
- 8
- 1
- 7
As I type this, I'm watching 9 little fluffballs sleep in their brooder, thanks to Backyard Chicken!
I set ten eggs in a Brinsea Mini Eco incubator on the morning of March 20. From that point on, I obsessed, fretted, and obsessed more about these eggs. I used this forum to know which days to candle, what I should see when I candle, and all about the lockdown on day 18.
I started to panic on day 22 when nothing really happened, but was reassured that 21 days is just an average. When nothing happened for hours after several pips, again I turned to BYC to figure out if that was normal.
Then, 8 chicks hatched (of course in the middle of the night...I did see one before I left school for the night, but the kids didn't see any actual hatching)! One more hatched the next morning. Here's the really awesome part of this story. Two chicks were born with issues: one hadn't completely absorbed its yolk and another had a curled foot. By looking through the threads on this forum, I learned how to deal with both things. One full day after hatching, I'm happy to say that the one chick has almost completely absorbed it's yolk (it's much smaller than it was yesterday) and the other is walking rather normally with a splint fashioned from a band-aid!
Contributors to Backyard Chicken, I can't thank you enough for helping me through these three weeks! I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge here and the quickness of your responses to issues and will continue to use it as these babies grow.
I set ten eggs in a Brinsea Mini Eco incubator on the morning of March 20. From that point on, I obsessed, fretted, and obsessed more about these eggs. I used this forum to know which days to candle, what I should see when I candle, and all about the lockdown on day 18.
I started to panic on day 22 when nothing really happened, but was reassured that 21 days is just an average. When nothing happened for hours after several pips, again I turned to BYC to figure out if that was normal.
Then, 8 chicks hatched (of course in the middle of the night...I did see one before I left school for the night, but the kids didn't see any actual hatching)! One more hatched the next morning. Here's the really awesome part of this story. Two chicks were born with issues: one hadn't completely absorbed its yolk and another had a curled foot. By looking through the threads on this forum, I learned how to deal with both things. One full day after hatching, I'm happy to say that the one chick has almost completely absorbed it's yolk (it's much smaller than it was yesterday) and the other is walking rather normally with a splint fashioned from a band-aid!
Contributors to Backyard Chicken, I can't thank you enough for helping me through these three weeks! I am amazed at the wealth of knowledge here and the quickness of your responses to issues and will continue to use it as these babies grow.
