I know i promised gardening photos in my last post, but the lovely Spring days here on the farm has allowed for some wonderful outings for the chicks.
We have a total of eight! Momma hen June, is doing an excellent job raising them. When they get time out in the yard, June teaches the chicks everything about scratching the grass to get to the dirt!
The last chick to hatch was 2 days after the previous. When I candled everything seemed A-OK but during hatch a different story emerged. Last Thursday (today is the following Thursday) I heard the chick faintly peeping. I was relieved to finally have my last one coming! At this point of 2 weeks after the first hatchling i was ready to put away the the incubator (if you are following the blog you know there were several eggs that I had separated from under momma because of the poop on them. This occurred prior to me giving momma June her own coop to hatch in peace from the other fowl. Now i know to move her earlier. So the messy eggs I had to clean and isolate them. In the end, I had 3 'bad' eggs which were developed chicks but died of an obvious bacterial infection, and oh my goodness were the eggs stinky, no need to candle or crack em open!!!! yuck!, and the rest were a successful hatch. I actually buried them because of the stink.)
Well come the next day, on Friday evening, the sound of the peeping was more intense. I checked and made sure the humidity was good, that she was on a dry paper towel, etc etc. I thought we were ready to go. Well, come Saturday morning and fully expecting the chick to be out I was surprised she was not. And when i peered in to study the egg, I quickly found out why she had not yet hatched. She was upside down and trying to hatch out of the narrow end of the egg! Luckily she was strong and she had cracked a weird round area off. The chicken uses its beak under its tiny right wing to guide it in a circumnavigational pattern to hatch off the blunt end. When the chicks hatch on the short pointy end, they can not turn because there is no room or leverage for them to spin in a circle. And even worse, most chicks die from hatching on the short end because the air sac is usually on the blunt end as well.
Well I scooped her up, walked her to the bathroom and ran my hot water. I adjusted so temp it felt just perfect and let the water pool into the palm of my hand. I slowly pulled the membrane back to open the already cracked area. Well, its all she needed, she popped that shell right off onto my hand. She also stayed seated in the shell! So, I did a quick check that the yolk was fully absorbed, that there was no blood either, I supported her and I quick snapped this beautiful photo.
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| Last But Not Least |
She sure looked happy to be finally out! I don’t blame her!
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| June and the Eights |
I hope everyone is enjoying the early spring. We sure are.
