Hatch 2012: The Aftermath

It seems as though the hatching is now wrapped up.  There hasn't been a single pipped egg now for 12 hours and no peeping can be heard within the incubator.  I will give it until morning and I will call it done.

We had 21 chicks that made it into the brood box.  That is below a 40% hatch rate.  Since I wasn't able to candle the eggs at seven days and I was not able to figure out how many were not fertile.  If the percentage was 25%, that would mean 14 eggs were not fertile, and with the two eggs that I found cracked at day 3, that would give me a hatch rate of just over 50%. Which is right about where an amateur incubating eggs should get.  This is much lower than the 80% or so we had last year, but I am going to chalk that one up to beginners luck.

This bunch of chick is proving to be a bit more problematic than last time.  I found one chick dead in the brood box when I got home from work.  Dina said that she didn't like how that one was acting and breathing.  I do not know what may have caused it so that one will remain a mystery.  I could not bear to put the little guy in the dumpster so I buried him in the raised bed.  At least he will provide some benefit to the blackberries and raspberries.

A couple of the chicks had curled toes since they took too long to hatch.  I have tried to remedy the worse of the two with transpore tape.  He seems to walk on it fine for the time being.  In a couple days I will take it off and see how well it is.  Fingers crossed!

There is one chick that has me very worried.  He has not stood up since he was put in the brood box and I fear that he never will.  He has laid around all the time and uses a flapping motion with his wings to move himself around.  I noticed that his knees do not look right and his legs in general are splayed out more like the back legs of a frog.  This is a much more serious problem and I am beginning to wonder if this one will need to be culled.  I want to see if anything happens in the next few days, but I do not want him to be in pain while he moves himself or gets picked to death by the others.  It is really heartbreaking to watch but I do not know the best way to cull him if or when I have to.