weak new chick, first timer woes

[beckymom3]

Hello all you BYC folks! I'm a chicken semi-newbie and have some worries I'd love your help with.

I'm on day 22 of my first hatch, mixed layer eggs I bought from Local Harvest. These babes were for a school project and unfortunately conditions were not as ideal as I would have liked. This batch was set up at the school and managed by the science teacher and students, so I'm not sure how consistent they were with managing parameters, this being the first hatch for them as well.

Anyhow, I brought them home for the hatch yesterday, day 21--it's Spring Break here and no one is there to manage the hatch. When I arrived at the school, one cutie had already made it's debut and was running around the bator happy and chirping. One other egg had pipped and there was movement. Several other eggs were rocking but I couldn't hear any noise.

The pipped egg made no progress for hours and hours, just the little hole. Movement reduced to almost nothing and there was no sound, so I followed the instructions I found here regarding assisting in the hatch. The membrane was so dry it was like leather and there was almost no fluid at all inside with the chick.

Anyway, the babe has been very weak. I took literally hours of intermittent interventions, wrapping in warm wet cloth, finally the babe getting free on it's own. It has been very weak and unable to really walk, though is chirping and flapping and has fluffed up very nicely. It seems too weak to carry it's weight on it's legs.

My question to you experienced folks is: how can I maximize this baby's chances after a difficult hatch? Are there any supplements that can help? or is time all I need for it to gain it's strength? It's a little fighter, but I worry we may lose it! The kids would be devastated!

A second concern is none of the other eggs have even pipped yet. I read on some BYC threads to not bother the eggs at all until day 24-25, but I worry they may be suffering the same fate as that second babe, conditions too dry during those last days. I did increase humidity on day 18. I worry they are too weak or have overgrown the eggs.

I'm fairly certain of the viability of these guys as candling was reassuring on day 10. I rechecked a few as I set them up for the hatch on day 18 and saw several nice, big chicks with good air space.

I'm a novice at this, as you might tell, so I'm not sure of all the variables and things to look for. So help is very gratefully requested to anyone who has a thought on the matters I've mentioned.

Thanks!!!

 

[asher]

For the already hatched chick, you can give them gatoraide (for electrolytes), sugar water or honey to help them. That's stuff that you could/may have on hand. If you have access to a feed store, you can ask for gro-gel. It may just be weak from hatching still.

For the ones not yet hatched, it's important to remember that lots of things can happen between day 10 and now and just because they were viable then, does not mean that they made it to the end or are still alive. You can candle them now and see if they are alive and pipped through the shell. Honestly, unless they actually externally pip, I am not big on helping and even then, it just depends, but that's such an individual choices.

Good luck!

 

[RhodeRunner]

I give my chicks smashed up hard boiled eggs. They love it, and it does seem like it gives them more energy.

I have had chicks hatch late as well day 24 and 25, and they were fine, so I wouldn't give up. All you can really do is make sure your temp and humidity are okay, and wait. It may be hard, but the less you open the incubator, the better.

 

[beckymom3]

Thanks for the advice!

Since I posted initially, the little baby has really done well. It's walking, chirping madly, pecking around and tasting things. It still doesn't stand for long periods like the other new chick, but is definitely better. It was just mostly laying around before, now is curious and at least trying hard to get around! Whew!

I am going to force myself to wait on the others. Since these were shipped eggs, a new incubator and an inexperienced novice (me) they may not have set until a day or 2 after starting, so I'm going to wait until day 25. Humidity around 50-55% sound good?

I'm off to the feed store for gro-gel anyway, though, to prevent further problems.

I'm considering getting some Silkies to do the job in future, this artificial brooding is a pain!!! I know an old timer who raises rare heritage birds of many types and he relies heavily on broody hens. He wants birds that are strong enough to do the process naturally and I think I understand why! He even lets the chickens and turkey hens set on each other's eggs, brood them and so forth. It's a very close community of mommies! And there's not much better a guard animal than a sexy old Tom turkey!!!!

 

[minifarmgurl1]

HAHAHA i agree, good luck !!! post when you get any results!

 

[Egg_newton]

I hear polyvisol w/o iron is a good vitamin for chickens too. Just a few drops. I had a little one that hadn't hatched by day 25 so I intervened. It was super weak and still had the umbilical cord attached. I had some broiler booster that I mixed up and gave it some with a syringe and kept wrapped in a wet wash rag and left it in the bator. It is a vitamin powder mixed with water. I had five or six other eggs that were mostly developed that never hatched. Two had pipped internally and the others never did anything just died in the shell.

Little bit is now in the brooder with five other chicks who are much bigger than him but seems to be doing just fine. He is now four days old.

 

[beckymom3]

The little weak baby is weak no more!

He's pecking away at the starter feed. No local feed stores had gro gel, so I added electrolyte/vitamin solution to the water.

Still no pips. Humidity in the incubator is a bit high, 70%, so I'm wicking water out to get it closer to 50-55%. I'm afraid with all the hustle and bustle the remaining eggs may have problems these last days. I know they are fully developed, and I candled one and saw movement, but I'm worried they are not pipped yet!

Will staring at them help at all? I keep thinking I hear tap-tapping in there, or is it the styrofoam creaking? Drat!

 

[beckymom3]

It took forever to get the humidity down. I finally had to get out a syringe and draw water out of the channels. I only have water in the central channel now, not much at all. Admittedly, the room humidity here is a bit high, and it's raining to boot!

I'm sitting at 65% now, any thoughts on that? I read that long, amazing thread on humidity, and it seems the consensus is 55-65% humidity on lockdown days. I know I've had it too high part of lockdown, if not most, and I hope my babies haven't drowned! Weird thing is, until I got the hygrometer going, I thought it was too dry in there! Of course, I was going by the instructions which say to have the channels at least half full for the last 2-3 days. How wrong could that be?

I'm ending day 22, still no pips on my remaining 14 eggs. No noise, no rocking that I can tell.

. Gonna hold fast until day 24-5, which is hard, hard, hard.

I'm ready for some

!!!!!

I need to get this incubator figured out before I set my next batch, this being my "trial run" as a project for my kids' school. I've got Brahma and Australorp eggs coming this week and will need my 'bator ready! Also Sebastapol goose eggs. And I'm dying to see what all I've got in this current slow-to-hatch mix. Poor babies. If no one else makes it, that's only 2 out of 23 eggs! What a horrible hatch rate!!!! I have to reassure myself I did see chicks in there on day 18 when I quickly candled prior to lockdown, and I did see a good babe today....

Gotta sit on my hands!