This is a friend who is attempting the chicken thing
Well the second brood of hatch lings were not as successful. I have a baker's dozen and 4 of those are crippled. Hobbling on one leg. Their other claw is curled under. Any ideas on how that happened or how to help them. I have another three in the hospital because they are really bad. Two died after hatching. 6 died in the pipping stage. They got stuck. The three in the hospital were also stuck and I went ahead and helped them (I know I should not) But they were going to die anyway. Thought I would try and give them a 1/2 chance.
32 eggs left in the incubator. Gave them the smell test and tossed three stinkers out yesterday,. Still no more pips. So gave the remaining eggs the float test. I had four quitters that sunk to the bottom. I accidently dropped two. Looked inside they appeared dead.
So I now have 25 left in the incubator. Tomorrow will be the last day to wait on any late hatchers.
I have 42 more eggs on lock down now. I bought on ebay. There is a high mortality rate expected with Postal shipped eggs. They are silkies, Amercanas, and silver lace wings.
I have 10 very happy teenaged chicks in my little chicken coupe. They are going to be hard to give up. They were my firstborns. LO...
Some Advice for her..please?
Oh boy, that sounds like a mess. I have never used an incubator so know little about it. I have seen pictures on here, can't remember who, but somebody cut out a little piece of thin cardboard or something about the size of the chick's foot and taped it on to spread those toes out. Looked like a little snow shoe, and the chick was able to walk.
I was a little lost on the smell test and the float test. Last day? Does that mean day 24 or 25?
Sounds like the poor little things had a rough time of it.
I am not sure on the timing of the days....
I've never done it, but saved these just in case...
http://www.ehow.com/how_5683551_raise-baby-chickens-leg-problems.html
http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=39313&action=new
Hope it helps.
Again, not from personal experience, stuck chicks may be because of too low humidity in the 'Bator?
Wishing them all the best...
Melva I believe it is from to much inter breeding. The only 2 times I have had that happen is from Heritage Delaware eggs I got. I got 2 batches from 2 different people. 1 from N MS which was the worst with only a surviving Roo and the other from up North US. They died right after hatching or were born with the very badly messed up legs/feet and had to be put down. The 5 I have now are not healthy even after 3, 7 day treatments of Duramycin over winter and 1, 5 day treatment of very expensive Tylan powder a couple of weeks ago. I treat all my flock when I treat. I am going to treat the just Dels 1 more time and if it doesn't fix them I will get hubbie to put them down
Hi there,
I feel for you. I have been raising all sorts of chicken, peafowl and ornamental pheasants. From personal experience, my advice would be NEVER buy eggs that need shipping. Almost 100% failure rate. Please just buy baby chicks from some stores (here in TX we have Tractor Supply and the Co-op carrying baby chicks). It could be a bit more expensive, but stll cheaper than when you buy direct from mail-order breeders. When you buy baby chicks, you won't have the anxiety waiting for the eggs to hatch nor the heartache when they don't hatch.
As for the deformities, they are more likely caused by too low humidity at the time of hatching. There are several good books on raising chicken from eggs, but running an incubator is not an easy task. I have been using incubators, very nice ones, too; and yet many times I still encounter problems, esp. with ornamental pheasants. A good friend of mine lets some silkie hens sit on the eggs for 7-10 days, the remove the eggs to an incubator
In my opinion taping of the legs etc is just a waste of time and also could be harmful to the chicks. They just hatched, what they need is rest and warmth, not being manipulated.
Hope this helps.
Sita Brothers
Lone Oak, TX
This message was edited Apr 26, 2011 11:55 AM
Thanks I have passed on your advice.
Donna B,
I am not familiar with Tylan powder, nor its price. I am using Tylan 50 liquid, inj, if my birds have respiratory infection. What are you using the Tylan powder for?
Sita
I guess it's a personal choice, but I try to treat any concievably correctible conditions as soon as possible. I've been curious so looked up more about causes and cures for crooked toes in chicks.
From one of my favorite resources,
http://professorchickensdiseases.webs.com/deformities.htm
"Crooked toes sometimes occur at the time of hatching. It is important to do something about it as soon as possible, because within a few days it will be too late to do anything for it. Chicks that have been missed at hatching can go on to live a perfectly normal life, but they cannot be shown and will be harder to sell. All in all, it is much better to do something about it. There is not known to be any genetic pre-disposition to crooked toes, so chickens who had crooked toes can be used as breeders."
Hope the chicks all do better
I passed on the information..not sure what she has done...
Hey there Sita, it's a pleasure. Welcome to the Garden. I strongly agree with your statement. I know some like buying eggs, and to be sure it's an individual choice. However I shun buying eggs, and have found to many unscrupulous mail order breeders. At one point I paid for three doz Marans eggs at the cost of three hundred bucks and got two roosters, and one gangly hen that only lived four months and she acted like a drunken sailor...LOL...That was my first and last buying eggs...I also believe most physical problems come directly from lack of humidity control...Humidity is crucial...Hay P. S. I also believe inbreeding is a major problem also...
This message was edited Apr 26, 2011 1:10 PM
Oh wow, that's a lot of money for a couple of roosters. Man!
I am afraid to inject the Tylan so I got powder to mix in water. It is 50.00!!! vs. 10 for the injectable. I have a brand new bottle I let exp. in Feb because I am to afraid to give them a shot and read that it doesn't mix in water
I was having 1 bird in each coop get sick, I treat and a month later I would have a new bird one in each coop get sick. It started after I bought some Millie Fleur Hens. The Dels have never looked healthy from day one but 3 of 5 seem pretty good today. One of the last hens and the Roo from the first hatch still look bad. The Roo had gotten Bubbles in his eye and some one said it was a cold a few months ago when they started getting sick. His eye still is not right and one of the Millies eyes is closed completely now even with terramycin ointment and several round of antibiotics.
Hay the Del roo acts kind of like a drunken Sailor too
When you help chicks out of the egg.. leg problems are often the price you pay. If they can't hatch on their own, there is usually a reason. This is one time I can honestly say I'd do the same thing.. I'm guilty of trying to save every single one..
I also feel something can be done right away. I have hobbled a baby that was splayed and completely fixed it.. I've straightened toes with surgical tape too..
I also don't agree that shipped eggs are 100% failure. I do believe it is a gamble, and buyer needs to beware. I've had very good results with shipped eggs, and was even able to build my Serama flock from shipped eggs. I had 100% hatch from shipped Delaware eggs from ebay.. No it's not for a beginner, and you have to be very careful who you buy from..
Haystack, I'm shocked at you! I would never pay $300. for eggs!! That is too much of a gamble for me! No wonder you shun shipped eggs!
To correct the leg problem, you can take a bandaid, cut it lengthwise, and wrap the sticky ends around the leg creating hobbles. You can use a little baby oil to get it off in a day or two. I will search for the links to show you how to do it.. but yes, it can fix a chick that can't walk.
Well ZZ's as much as I hate to admit it, theres no fool like an old fool...BLUSH. Gotta tell the truth at all costs...Hay
The very best thing or experience I have ever had was receiving six Seramas from a dear friend, Called ZZ's. I have had more fun and fulfillment from those six than I could have ever believed. I have two pure white males and two pure white hens that I would put up against any serams alive when it comes to posture or confirmation...Hay
This message was edited Apr 26, 2011 9:34 PM
i used pipe cleaners with a loop on each end wrapped around the leg. Then i didn't' have to deal with the sticky bandaid or the headache of trying to wrap a sticky object around flailing chick legs. Ours is doing so well you can't tell she ever had a problem. Mine was from my own hatched egg, first batch of eggs from new chicks last year, no inbreeding on my part... but I won't promise the hatchery i bought them from doesn't allow it which made me kinda think twice about buying from certain hatcheries i dealt with last season. Also they had very high humidity the last 5 days before hatch, 98 to 100% humidity, no way i could adjust it down or up.. this was a batch of eggs that the hen abandoned & we decided to attempt to save. Not sure how well the hen adjusted the humidity as that's not something i can tell :0) BUT i will say... my egg shells are hard as rocks from the calcium consumption.... i do NOT give my chickens oyster shell. We have heavy metals & minerals in our water, very high concentrations of calcium. It shows in my eggs. You can drop one of my eggs or throw it on the ground & they bounce... yes i said bounce. I think this may be the entire reason for the leg issues in my chicks... they didn't have the strength to break out of the hard egg shells thus damaging their legs temporarily. We did end up putting one chick, Flipper, down. She wasn't growing, wasn't thriving like her roommates. the other one did thrive, did live, & is already outside running around some days.
Well, again, it's when we intervene.. If the mom left the eggs, I'm sorry, but no one can convince me she didn't know something we don't. I have opened eggs that were abandoned.. and if I didn't get leg problems, I got a weak chick the majority of the time.. If they were all good eggs, I just can't believe the mom would leave them... It's not just cause one hatched.. I've seen a mom sit on eggs for days and days after a chick hatched.. That is not a scientific fact.. it's just been my experience and I will continue to believe it till science can prove otherwise! LOL ** feeling exposed here***
This means nothing to me cause I will never stop trying to save them!
Haystack, you are NOT a fool... I would never ever even imply that.. You know that!
We have all had experiences we are not proud of.. but we learn that way! Just didn't realize your lesson was so harsh.. No wonder you hate shipped eggs! Also, you have Seramas, the worlds hardest eggs to ship successfully... and to valuable to gamble with.
You are a love.
Just remember, all this comes from a self proclaimed hatching addict that had to sell her bators and hatchers to stop the insanity. :)
"I just can't believe the mom would leave them... It's not just cause one hatched.."
You know, I had a Silkie do that, and I figured it was because it was her first time, and she didn;t know any better. I put the "leftover" eggs under another hen who'd just begun to set, and nothing. Maybe she DID know something. And, no, I didn't open them.
Well, everyone that has chickens hatch eggs probably knows when the hen rolls one away from the nest she knows it's bad. I kept putting this one egg back, and she kept rolling it out. Sure enough it was rotten. Trust the hen, she often knows more than we do.
No opinion on leaving the nest, just witnessed the egg rolling out thing.
Zz I had no idea you sold your bators... to stop the insanity? Ouch, not sure I want to know. I just wrote to Bobbi Porto that has some lovely silkies and she called herself a "borderline hoarder" in the email. She said she has lots and lots of birds. Now, she has put off writing back to me as she tries to decide which ones to hoard, um.. keep ..for herself. :) Hope she doesn't mind my joking about it here. It was her joke after all.
She sounds like me! I get over my head way too fast.. Now that I had to move and can't have the chickens here, I sure don't need anything to temp me.. I had to "thin the herd" more times than I care to mention. I am caring for my elderly mother, so things are going to just stay how they are for the time being. I still hope for things to be different some day.. but for now, this is what I have to do.
Enjoy her while you can. My mother died eight years ago from smoking. I miss her. On my last birthday I cried thinking about how every year she would call me and say "Guess what I was doing .. (however many years old I was).... 35 years ago". Then she'd tell me the entire story AGAIN of how she was in labor two days and how I did not want to be born, like I had never heard any of it before. I'll never get another one of her phone calls on my bd again. Life goes on.
Mothers are never all good, nor all bad.
My mother has been gone 13 years and I miss her too...on my 40th birthday she told me, "You are not, 40 years old!" I told her to do the math Mom....she is the reason I am a gardener..turns out her mother was too.
i had 7 hens on 4 batches of eggs... each hatched 1 baby & left. I took one batch of eggs, 12 eggs, got 7 healthy babies & 2 that needed help. My hens appear to get bored bc they go broody & still allow the others to lay eggs in with them. They will have several different hatch dates underneath them at one time. I can't seem to fix it bc if i start moving the eggs at any point they get off all of them. I have had 1 hen who was a good mama... the rest are just so so. Did the same last year.. all eggs hatched out great.
I guess there is always an exception. Nothing is written in stone.
In my case, I was referring to excellent broody hens that have been moms several times.. no nest sharing and controlled environment.
I haven't seen a lot of success in shared broody situations.
melvatoo do you know how the chick turned out? Did she have any luck fixing the problem?
I saw her last night and asked about the chicks...it doesn't sound like she did anything for them..she says she still has them all and they are still gimping a long.
She went with me to get wood for the frame of my coop, so that is done. I am collecting materials ....next I need to get some nails so the thing can be framed...
she has another coop framed, and she sweet talked her DH into making a roof for the coop so now she just has to make the walls...
Just a thought, I've turned to using screws for chicken coop assembly. For me, at least, it seems to hold together better, and I can take it apart to replace anything that gets damaged or wears out. It's also easier when I decide it's not working out the way I wanted.
My SO suggested that long ago, and I fought it (tooth and nail?) but have since decided that it's better for me. I do not, however, admit this to him.
There are still thing I nail. but they're far fewer *G*
I've done both.. one coop nails & one with screws... i do have to say using the power drill & screws was much much much simpler... easier to get things together & like catmad said... if its not what you like.. u simply unscrew it & readjust. Also when i needed to use cheaper wood.. it wouldn't split out as badly with a screw as it would with a nail. Works great! :0) like she said... Just a thought.
That is a good idea, I had heard someone else say that...