[Buffy the eggs layer]

Hi,

  I have two cracking little chicks that hatched yesterday in my incy. I moved them to the brooder and they are doing great. The 3rd one to hatch took a little longer but now that it has its feathers wont fluff up. I suspect its to do with the moisture in the incubator though this was fine for the other two. I have let it completely dry out and rest and have moved it to the broooder with the others in the hope that wriggling about in the straw under the electric hen will fluff up the feathers a bit.

most of the feathers are still looking thin and as if they are in the hairlike strands of a newly hatched chick despite being hatched for 12 hours. As giving it a shampoo and a blow dry is not an option, any other ideas? I hoped that if I can keep it warm enought for a few days the new feather growth that comes through will start to give it a layer of protection against its skin.

I'm not too hopeful though.....has anyone had any experience of this?

Buffy

[little blue]

in my experience, any chick that doesnt soon dry & fluff up is generally a "poor do-er" I'm afraid.
if you're still worried about it being cold, can you put a warm hot-water-bottle under the straw too?

good luck anyway

[Glentarki]

Hi Buffy.............I’ve had this happen over the years. The cause can be any amount of things I suppose but personally I’ve put it down to be humidity increasing during hatching, all those eggs cracking at the same time sends the humidity through the roof………..In my experiences its always the last eggs to hatch that at times this can happen too, at home we call them sticky chicks !………Without seeing your wee chick its difficult to say but it sounds as if the poor sole has a translucent covering of the egg membrane preventing the fluffing up appearance of chick down.

A few things you can do to help your chick but no guarantees… ….YES shampoo  we do it…..some warm water is all that’s needed, using cotton wool lightly rub all over this will help breakdown and remove any film that’s preventing the down fluffing up, returning to the heat of the brooder ASAP….You may have to repeat a second time but generally no more than that………..I’ve had great results over the years especially if they look perky enough despite their appearance………As you mentioned new feather growth will kick in too…….Good luck and hope this helps a tad
Dave

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Thanks Dave,


        thats really helpful. I was going to take a pic but I didnt want the chick haning about away from the heat. I followed to manual in terms of humidity and had it set at 45% for the turning period but a forumer told me that this was to low. I upped it to 55% on the 18th day as he advised and then to 65% as per the manual for the last 3 non turning days anticipating a hatch at day 21. The first two chicks hatched on day 20 while I was out at work and the humidity was at 70% when I got home. this was when li'l sticky was trying to hatch so it was probably quite damp in there.

   The chick was exactly as you described but I didnt want to stress it and chill it so I resisted the temptation to use damp cotton wool. The move to the brooder worked and apart from a little patch near its tail and the fact that its head feathers arn't as afro as the other chicks, you would never know it was sticky.

  The humidity was back to around 63% by the time the last one hatched yesterday so that one fluffed up much better but it struggled to detach itself from the membrain in the shell and was dragging the shell round with the membrain attached to its vent. I managed to detach it vary carefully by moistening the membain and detaching it well away from the chicks body. The sticky chick had a little bit of a similar problem though not as bad. It seemed as though it had not fully detached itself before hatching. Is this a humidity ot temp related problem?

all four are looking well and 3 of them are happily eating chick crumb and boiled egg. I would feel alot happier if I could see them take a drink before I go back to work on monday.








Buffy

[doganjo]

all four are looking well and 3 of them are happily eating chick crumb and boiled egg. I would feel alot happier if I could see them take a drink before I go back to work on monday.

Buffy

Place them near the water bowl and push their beaks down into the water.  They'll catch on quick. Although to be honest unless you are watching them 24/7 you may have missed seeing them drinking

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Thanks Doganjo,


        you are right of course and I did do the beak dipping thing with them as I put them in the broody box. Since my post two have had a little slurp and one has managed to take a little water off my finger. I just wanted to know that they were all up and thriving by the time I went off to work for the week.

Buffy

[shetlandpaul]

glad its ok. i check the humidity 4 times a day if i remember but often forget. does your incy have a control or are you using a seperate meter. i ended up using two because one was alway reading low and the other high. as long as there is water in the tray it should remain relatively stable. if it gets very humid 80upwards just very briefly lift the lid. if your lifting the lid too often to check them. which we are guilty of then the switching of high to low can make it harder for them to hatch to. only ever had one very sticky but a little warm water o cotton wool should get most off. dont worry over a few stuck down feathers they soon will drop off.

[Glentarki]

Hi Buffy…..Great news to hear you’ve done so well with your sticky chicks and that at the time of your posting they were doing OK. Incubation is such a mine field of complexities trying all the time to replicate the good old broody hen. I think at times we beat our selves up a bit when things go a little less to plan, trouble is its such a learning curve where the simplest of situations that often go unnoticed can affect hatching rate.
It was the humidity that caused the stickiness due to eggs hatching alongside each other, its nothing you did wrong and not the temperature. Your last chick hatching at 63% humidity only had that difficulty due to the earlier humidity being a bit high perhaps prior to you seeing it at 70% it could have been higher …..I’ve seen it regularly reach 90% at hatching especially with a lot of eggs……. Shetlandpaul gave a great bit of advice at lifting the lid to reduce humidity, it’s a quick fix and works well……. Personally I like to keep humidity around 60-65% at the point of hatching.
Now getting the little buggers to drink. A wee tip, shallow dish filled with coloured stones or grit cover with water…….The colour will attract them and its amusing to watch when they get a watery surprise when pecking the coloured grit or stones.
Hope this helps happy hatching were all learning ay!
Dave

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Thanks Dave and Paul,

   its reasuring to know that my first attempt with the incy did not go too badly. I used an RCOM Suro which is fully automatic but the difficulty was that the chicks hatched earlier than the predicted day 21 which meant I had to go to work. The rH could well have exceded 70% as the second chick was pretty dry by the time I got home so they would have both been generating moisture.

The good news is I managed to hatch all of the eggs that were developing when I candled them at day 10 and they all seem to be doing well. The electric hen is proving to be very effective as they can control there own temp and move away from the heat or back under it as they need to. Another advantage if you are not around to adjust a heat lamp.

As it turns out I had actually put some shiny pebles in the shallow water dish to stop them falling in it. A couple seem to drink regularly now, havent seen the youngest do it yet but if its still alive it must be. 

Buffy

[shetlandpaul]

to get a full hatch of your fertile eggs means you don't need any lessons just do what you did the next time. when you do get poorer hatchings you will now know it was not your fault. i always open the failed eggs to see what happened. most just have not formed ie scrambled. or they die within the first week or so. its quite rare to get a lot of full term eggs dying.
well done. now disinfect the incy for your next time.