Although this is an incubating story I wanted to share this with you as well. I am still somewhat shaken by what happened today. It is a story of an incredible will to survive and 9 chicks that were born in a hot shower.
I had gone into Lockdown on Wednesday and my first chick hatched Saturday and I had 6 pips. So far so good. Temperature and humidity were fine when I went to bed but I just couldn't sleep all night. So finally I got up at 5 to check on the critters and to my horror I saw that the incubator was unplugged!!! The darn cats got it in the middle of the night! My little hatchling inside wasn't moving no more and all chirping was gone. When I checked the temperature it was at 75 degrees. With the high humidity it made it horribly cold in there. I already assumed that I had lost my entire batch, but when I saw the little guy move a bit I grabbed him real quick and literally kept breathing warm air on him for a good half hour.
Soon he began to move and chirp a bit. As soon as I saw that I ran to the microwave, boiled water and stuck it into the (now) plugged in incubator while I tended the poor chick. I figured I would have to give it a try. I had just put him next to a hair dryer when I heard the chirping return from the incubator. Temp was now up to 80 and rising but all pips where shrink wrapped. I believe it may have been the cold since the humidity was at 90% when I grabbed the little guy. The poor things just couldn't get out. I decided I had to interfere, so I turned the shower on hot and grabbed the first egg and made our way back to the bathroom. Once in the shower, I gently pulled off the outer egg shell and slowly worked my way into the white membrane. The poor chick inside felt ice cold even though the egg shell was warm. Slowly and gently I helped it out and left the bottom part of the egg intact so that it would still be connected to the yolk if needed. I then put it together with my hatchling to warm up under the hair dryer. Ran outside to the barn, got a heat lamp and water bucket and created a makeshift brooder/ chick ICU.
I then proceeded to do the same with 8 more chicks
but the last one was bleeding pretty bad so I figured he/ she would die but I put it with the others anyway. So by now I had all chicks that had pipped the day before or throughout the night hatched and under a heat lamp. The 4 remaining eggs in the incubator were not pipped yet and made no noise. I am afraid they may have perished. All day long I kept a close eye on my chicks and my little runt and so far everybody is doing great, eating, drinking, pooping and sleeping. I am amazed that my emergency chick C- section actually worked even though my hands were shaking real bad when I did it. It is unbelievable to me how those little chicks survived even though they were in their most vulnerable stage when this happened. I thought about selling those chicks but after hatching them myself under a hot shower I think I will keep them.
I will post some pictures of the survivors tomorrow. Kitties now get put away at night
I had gone into Lockdown on Wednesday and my first chick hatched Saturday and I had 6 pips. So far so good. Temperature and humidity were fine when I went to bed but I just couldn't sleep all night. So finally I got up at 5 to check on the critters and to my horror I saw that the incubator was unplugged!!! The darn cats got it in the middle of the night! My little hatchling inside wasn't moving no more and all chirping was gone. When I checked the temperature it was at 75 degrees. With the high humidity it made it horribly cold in there. I already assumed that I had lost my entire batch, but when I saw the little guy move a bit I grabbed him real quick and literally kept breathing warm air on him for a good half hour.
Soon he began to move and chirp a bit. As soon as I saw that I ran to the microwave, boiled water and stuck it into the (now) plugged in incubator while I tended the poor chick. I figured I would have to give it a try. I had just put him next to a hair dryer when I heard the chirping return from the incubator. Temp was now up to 80 and rising but all pips where shrink wrapped. I believe it may have been the cold since the humidity was at 90% when I grabbed the little guy. The poor things just couldn't get out. I decided I had to interfere, so I turned the shower on hot and grabbed the first egg and made our way back to the bathroom. Once in the shower, I gently pulled off the outer egg shell and slowly worked my way into the white membrane. The poor chick inside felt ice cold even though the egg shell was warm. Slowly and gently I helped it out and left the bottom part of the egg intact so that it would still be connected to the yolk if needed. I then put it together with my hatchling to warm up under the hair dryer. Ran outside to the barn, got a heat lamp and water bucket and created a makeshift brooder/ chick ICU.
I then proceeded to do the same with 8 more chicks
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