The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: suziequeue on May 26, 2014, 04:58:03 pm
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We've got hatching eggs all over the place - under four hens and in the incubator (never done incy before so it's a steep learning curve).
So far we have had pretty good results on the whole. I think the bantam will hatch two out of three she's on and of the eight in the incubator - four are now under the electric hen, two are pipping and one is still drying off.
One was born with what I presume is a mal-absorbed yolk sac. He has a little orangey brown thing about the size of a marrowfat pea dangling from his nether region. Other than that he seems lively enough. Will this just drop off or will he die?
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How old is he? Normally this is reabsorbed just before hatching and it's what they live on for the first 24+ hours.
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He was a few hours old but hubby noticed that it seemed to be getting bigger so I suspect some bowel was beginning to herniate through.
I'm afraid I put him out of his misery.
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Does sound odd - the ones I've had have just had part of the yolk (and it does look the yolk) still to be absorbed into their belly button region. Nothing like you describe - sounds like a good call. Hope the rest of the hatches contine well.
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We had a second chick born with a similar thing so I left him overnight and the sac seems to have diminished and is shrivelling up. I've put him in with the rest in the brooder so I shall see how he does. So - we had 7 hatch out of eight in the incy. Not bad for a couple of bungling first timers I think :)