The 8th Annual BYC Easter Hatch-a-long!!!!

[casportpony]

Cute! It fell asleep against the wall!

 

[BaileyMChicks]

I might have spoke too soon about everyone doing good. I have one chick that doesn't seem to be able to open it's eyes. It was the second malpositioned one. It has a very vaulted skull, and one eye looks slightly too big. At first I thought it was just sleepy and stuff, but it hasn't opened it's eyes at all, and it has been hatched for about 6 to 7 hours. It lifts up it's head and chirps all the time, but it never opens it's eyes. It walks around like it's blind. I haven't taken it out of the incubator yet, but I will be soon. Any ideas as to what's wrong or how to fix it? I will try to get a picture soon.

Also, chick number 5 has hatched. Only about 10 minutes ago.

Ok, now that I have Casper out of the incubator, and in the brooder with a few other hatch mates, it's keeping it's eyes open, and acting normal, if a little tired. I think it's ok for now. I was just worried since it hadn't opened it's eyes at all for about 7 hours. Maybe it was because of the high humidity in the incubator, I don't know. But I think Casper is ok for now.

 

[brucifer]

My wife and I had a discussion yesterday, and we've decided that we're pretty much done with hatchling rescues. During hatched we're pretty much going to do our best to maintain proper incubation temperatures and humidity, but during the hatching process, we're going to let nature take it's course. For example, if a chick can only pip and not zip, we're not going to assist.

From our experience, most of the hatchlings that need assistance have some kind of issue and need post-hatch treatment and/or therapy. Quite often they die anyway or have to get a long in life with a serious challenge. For example, we had three pre-hatch rescues for this last hatch. Two of the chicks have since died, and the remaining one has seriously curled feet and a distended navel.

We have some rescues in the past that have made it and are perfectly healthy, but they tend to be the exceptions. Anyway, it wasn't an easy decision, but after going through this ritual so many times, it seemed the best decision for us.

 

[Jessimom]

My wife and I had a discussion yesterday, and we've decided that we're pretty much done with hatchling rescues. During hatched we're pretty much going to do our best to maintain proper incubation temperatures and humidity, but during the hatching process, we're going to let nature take it's course. For example, if a chick can only pip and not zip, we're not going to assist.

From our experience, most of the hatchlings that need assistance have some kind of issue and need post-hatch treatment and/or therapy. Quite often they die anyway or have to get a long in life with a serious challenge. For example, we had three pre-hatch rescues for this last hatch. Two of the chicks have since died, and the remaining one has seriously curled feet and a distended navel.

We have some rescues in the past that have made it and are perfectly healthy, but they tend to be the exceptions. Anyway, it wasn't an easy decision, but after going through this ritual so many times, it seemed the best decision for us.

I feel the same way. I rarely try to rescue unless I personally did something that might have caused the problem.

 

[casportpony]

My final Easter HAL:
13 mutt chicken chicks
16 ducklings
0 peachicks

That's a total of 29

Edited to correct number of chicks.
@BantyChooks

 

[chikenscratch]

6 and counting...how egg-citing!

 

[Happy Chooks]

This may be what I'll have to do with the duck eggs that were brought to me and no one knows for sure how far along they are. Wait, until I hear chirping! Or quacking..or, whatever it is those cute little things do! lol

Good luck and looking forward to duckling pictures!

Quote: All 6 of them hatched!

And hatch day is tomorrow.

I guess they were in a hurry.

Quote: Good to know!

Quote: Glad the little one is doing okay. I have had sticky chicks that couldn't open their eye because they were glued shut. A little dab of water on a Q tip can solve this issue. But it doesn't sound like it's a problem for you.

My wife and I had a discussion yesterday, and we've decided that we're pretty much done with hatchling rescues. During hatched we're pretty much going to do our best to maintain proper incubation temperatures and humidity, but during the hatching process, we're going to let nature take it's course. For example, if a chick can only pip and not zip, we're not going to assist.

From our experience, most of the hatchlings that need assistance have some kind of issue and need post-hatch treatment and/or therapy. Quite often they die anyway or have to get a long in life with a serious challenge. For example, we had three pre-hatch rescues for this last hatch. Two of the chicks have since died, and the remaining one has seriously curled feet and a distended navel.

We have some rescues in the past that have made it and are perfectly healthy, but they tend to be the exceptions. Anyway, it wasn't an easy decision, but after going through this ritual so many times, it seemed the best decision for us.

I only help if they get stuck in the shell from a humidity drop while zipping. Every time I have helped a chick out of the shell, I have had to put it down. It's so heart breaking to nurse them along for a few weeks, then have to put them down. So I just don't do it anymore.

My final Easter HAL:
10 mutt chicken chicks
16 ducklings
0 peachicks

That's a total of 26.

No peachicks? Gosh, you'd better have a talk with them.

 

[BaileyMChicks]

I have a question, but I don't know if anyone here can answer it. I got 9 silkie eggs from a breeder down the road from me, and I had 6 hatch so far, one more to go(only 7 made it to lockdown). They have different color pens: paint, porcelain, and cuckoo. They gave me eggs from the paint and porcelain pens. I helped them separate the silkies out into the pens about a month before I got the eggs, and I know that in the paint pen, they have paints and a few blacks. I think the blacks in there are all roosters, but there may be a black hen or two in there, I'm not positive anymore(it's been a while since I helped them). Anyways, I had 4 paint eggs make it to lockdown, and so far out of the three that hatched, they all look black or very dark blue. Does anyone know if it's common for a bunch of paint silkie eggs to turn out black and dark blue? I'm guessing I won't be getting any paints at all, but I still have one more left to hatch. I'm just kind of bummed that I don't have any paint chicks out of 3. Also, how do the paint color genes work? I would like to know, and I can't really find any simple information on it.

 

[brucifer]

I have a question, but I don't know if anyone here can answer it. I got 9 silkie eggs from a breeder down the road from me, and I had 6 hatch so far, one more to go(only 7 made it to lockdown). They have different color pens: paint, porcelain, and cuckoo. They gave me eggs from the paint and porcelain pens. I helped them separate the silkies out into the pens about a month before I got the eggs, and I know that in the paint pen, they have paints and a few blacks. I think the blacks in there are all roosters, but there may be a black hen or two in there, I'm not positive anymore(it's been a while since I helped them). Anyways, I had 4 paint eggs make it to lockdown, and so far out of the three that hatched, they all look black or very dark blue. Does anyone know if it's common for a bunch of paint silkie eggs to turn out black and dark blue? I'm guessing I won't be getting any paints at all, but I still have one more left to hatch. I'm just kind of bummed that I don't have any paint chicks out of 3. Also, how do the paint color genes work? I would like to know, and I can't really find any simple information on it.

Sorry I can't answer your question regarding your Silkies. My wife is the Silkie person in our family. However, several weeks ago we acquired some day-old Silkies, some of which we were led to believe we porcelain. Over the weeks they changed quite a bit, and we ended up with a couple of gorgeous sizzle paints.

Anyway, this is an older thread, but perhaps someone can help you here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/429754/the-american-paint-silkie

 

[WalnutHill]

My wife and I had a discussion yesterday, and we've decided that we're pretty much done with hatchling rescues. During hatched we're pretty much going to do our best to maintain proper incubation temperatures and humidity, but during the hatching process, we're going to let nature take it's course. For example, if a chick can only pip and not zip, we're not going to assist.

From our experience, most of the hatchlings that need assistance have some kind of issue and need post-hatch treatment and/or therapy. Quite often they die anyway or have to get a long in life with a serious challenge. For example, we had three pre-hatch rescues for this last hatch. Two of the chicks have since died, and the remaining one has seriously curled feet and a distended navel.

We have some rescues in the past that have made it and are perfectly healthy, but they tend to be the exceptions. Anyway, it wasn't an easy decision, but after going through this ritual so many times, it seemed the best decision for us.

  I feel the same way.  I rarely try to rescue unless I personally did something that might have caused the problem.

I agree with both of these. While I can get nearly 100% hatches with intervention, I would prefer to have a smaller number of 100% heaalthy and robust chicks. I will make exceptions for extremely rare breeds or if I compromised the hatch.

I despise culling but would rather do that than hear a chick crying in distress.