The miracle chick

 Today we aren't counting our chickens so much as counting our blessings!

By Friday evening eighteen little chicks had hatched. For us this is a fabulous hatch rate, 90% of the eggs had hatched and we were over the moon. I had already moved eight of the chicks into the brooder box. This is a small secure cage with an electric heat pad on legs that the chicks can walk under to keep warm and feel secure. Effectively it's an electronic mother hen. So at supper time I moved the remainder of the chicks to the brooder, switched off the incubator and watched the eighteen little chicks finding their feet, exploring their cage and eating and drinking. Then I returned to the kitchen where the incubator was and started to clean it out.

There were lots of eggshells and the two remaining unhatched eggs. Sometimes, but not always, I carry out a simple post mortem by opening the unhatched eggs to see whether the chick had died in the shell early on or whether it had just become too exhausted to hatch. It's a useful process as it gives me an idea of whether I have let the incubator dry out or the humidity level was too high etc. It's a bit of a grim process, but it's the best way for me to learn whether I am doing things wrong (or right!).

I picked up the first egg to examine it. It was pipped and the shell was broken in a line about 3/4 of the way round, obviously this little chick had just worn itself out trying to hatch. I started to open the shell when the little bird inside started cheeping and moving! Good grief, I had switched off the incubator about 20 minutes earlier and left the lid off for several minutes while taking the chicks out of it to move them. So, I put the egg back into the incubator and put the lid back on. I grabbed a water sprayer and filled it with warm water and then lifted the incubator lid a little and sprayed warm water on to the shell of the unhatched bird and on to the empty shells in an attempt to quickly increase the humidity levels in the incubator.

Lifting the lid of incubator reduces the humidity levels significantly and leaving it off will mean that the air inside will be as dry as the air in the room. The air surrounding hatching chicks needs to be around 65% humidity (or more) to enable them to hatch properly, if it drops too low then the membrane inside the egg ( you know the one you have to peel off a hard boiled egg) will dry out. Then what you end up with is a shrink wrapped chick that can't get out of the membrane and shell and dies before it's even hatched.

The little chick struggled for some time to get out of shell and eventually the shell was off, but sadly the membrane had got too dry and part of it was stuck to the back of the chick. This little bird was weak, exhausted, had been subjected to cold, dry and being handled and neither Mr J nor I had much hope of it surviving. It was another white Jersey Giant and I would have loved one more to add to our growing flock.

It seems to me that about this point in any hatch I start hoping for miracles, hoping that the weakest little chick will find the strength to live. Up to now we haven't had much luck with the hoping, wishing and fingers crossed method, up until now that is.

Little chick no.19 lay in the incubator, too weak to stand up, its breathing alternated between deep gasping breaths and rapid shallow breathing. Its eyes were closed and looked swollen, its abdomen looked distended. As the evening went on the swelling went down a little and it opened one eye, although it still couldn't stand but looked like it had a little more control of its head and neck muscles.

When we went to bed we anticipated coming down to a dead chick and were prepared to be sad for the one and to celebrate the eighteen healthy hatches. 

But to our delight, no.19 made it through the night and as its tiny feather fluff had started to dry out, it began to look a little healthier. It was also up on its feet, wobbly and weak looking, but upright! 

By mid-morning it was moving tentatively around the incubator and with each passing hour, it looks stronger. It is still sleeping a lot, but then all chicks do that and it has started cheeping which indicates that it's lungs may not have been damaged by the rocky hatching experience. Chicks can stay in the incubator for up to 72 hours as they have enough nourishment from the yolk absorbed into their bodies and I think no.19 is going to need most of that time to become strong enough to join the others.

As I type it is late afternoon on Saturday, about twenty-four hours since the chick hatched, it is now cheeping away in the incubator and walking about, a little wobbly still, but definitely gaining strength hour by hour. It is not out of the woods yet, it still needs to be able to stand steadily, but we are both now hopeful that this little chap or chapess will survive and that if it continues to improve at the same rate, it will be able to join its brothers and sisters in the brooder box in a day or so. 

Every time we hatch some chicks (or ducklings) I am struck by how clever nature is, that little beings can grow inside an egg, go through the struggles of hatching and be well and lively within hours is nothing short of a miracle. The additional struggle that no.19 has gone through surely earns it the title of today's 'Miracle Chick'.

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You can see videos of the chicks on my YouTube channel where I post vlogs daily (almost). You can find my YouTube channel here.

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Hatch day success

The chicks were due on Tuesday, but there was absolutely no sign of any eggs hatching, in fact, they didn't even pip. I felt quite low, storm Doris was starting to arrive at our smallholding and it was too cold, wet and windy to do much outside. I was getting a heavy cold and a lack of chicks just added to my feeling fed-up. On Wednesday morning I was feeling a little despondent and as though I had done something or not done something that had caused the eggs a problem, as it turns out it was quite the opposite.

By nine in the morning one egg had pipped and by mid-morning that a little chick hatched. 

It was early afternoon before a second chick hatched, a bonny little white Jersey Giant.

Then, in late afternoon, the incubator seemed to come alive, it started looking like a popcorn maker with chicks hatching one after another and by the time we went to bed there were nine chicks jostling about in the confines of the incubator. When I got up briefly at 3am, there were twelve chicks and when I got up for the day at 6am, I found what I think is fourteen chicks. 

It's become quite difficult to count how many chicks there are, partly because of they are all similar colours, but also because they keep moving around. In the moments that they are all resting or asleep I start counting and then suddenly one pops up from under a little heap of baby birds and they all move around again and so, I lose count. This is a good problem to have, I am delighted with the hatch so far.

As I type there are six eggs that haven't hatched, at least two of them have pipped, but a pipping is no guarantee of a chick. They sometimes pip and then become exhausted by the effort required to do that, so die. Sometimes they get much further into the hatching process and then die. Hatching seems an incredible process and I am fascinated by it.

I filmed one little bird emerging from its shell and included it in yesterday's vlog.

It is much too windy to work outside today (unless of course you absolutely have to), so I have the perfect excuse to sit and watch these little bundles of fluff as they dry their first feathers and learn to use their legs. And of course, first of all, I'll make a nice cuppa!

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I also post vlogs daily (almost). You can find my YouTube channel here.

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If you'd like to receive my blog posts direct to your inbox just enter your email address in the box below and follow the instructions. You'll probably need to confirm by clicking a link in your email inbox and then you will receive my blog each time a new entry is published. You can, of course, cancel your subscription at any time.

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A baker's dozen, Hatchwatch July 2016

It's been a jolly exciting few days. The eggs in the incubator were due to hatch this week, as were the eggs under the broody hen. I've spent a lot of the week finding distractions, so that I didn't just sit on a chair in front of the incubator willing the eggs to hatch, because as we have learnt, staring at the eggs doesn't make the chicks come any faster.

We had some more topsoil delivered on Monday, so I have created the next raised bed by putting down a layer a cardboard and covering it with topsoil and compost.


Into this bed I have planted some winter squashes, which may just about have enough time to produce some small squashes to store for winter. I've also put in a few perennial herbs too. 

The last of the broad beans have been harvested, blanched and frozen and the garlic has been lifted and is now ripening and drying ready to be plaited or stored in netting bags for use throughout the year. Mr J and I eat a lot of garlic, I like it roasted we so can easily use two or three bulbs of garlic a week.

On Wednesday the first little chick hatched, it was one of the Cream Legbar's eggs (crossed with the bantam cockerel that we had for a few weeks). It is tiny, a tiny little ball of fluff, it looks like a black fluffy small golf ball, but it's feisty and was ready to come out of it's little egg (and it was little in comparison to all the other eggs). 

Later in the day another chick arrived. I am assuming that it is one of Jack's eggs, but we won't know until the hatch is completed and we can check which eggs have or haven't hatched. It is the colour of champagne and looks like a typical Easter chick, now we are a tad confused because we don't have a white or champagne colour hen so can only assume that it's colouring comes from the parents of the mother. Whatever the reason that it is a pale one, I am delighted because I have a preference for white birds.

Following these two hen's eggs hatching, our first duckling hatched. Mr J and I sat quietly watching it emerge from its shell. I wasn't prepared for how sweet it would be and in comparison to the chicks, it was huge! 

On Wednesday afternoon we went to collect another batch of spend brewery grain and hops which I will use to create another compost heap or two. I've decided that I need to use a better mixture of green and brown materials with the spent grain to encourage faster composting, but we are struggling to find much brown material at the moment.

However in the evening we took delivery of our first load of wood chippings, hopefully it is the first of many. As a thank you to the tree surgeon who is giving us the chippings, I made up a veg box and included a few eggs, which he took with him when he left. The first pile of wood chippings included quite a lot of Leylandii, which we had discussed beforehand and I was happy to take them as they will be used on the pathways and so shouldn't be a problem for our soil and plants.
The wood chipping pile also has a large section of broadleaf tree leaves, which I was delighted to agree to having as I can use them in the compost piles and of chipped broadleaf tree branches which will be ideal to mix with the spent grain and some straw from the duck house in the compost heap.

When I got up on Thursday morning I immediately checked the incubator and was delighted that a second duckling had hatched. I went out to open up the henhouses and when I came back in another chick had hatched and by nine o'clock in the morning, another one had hatched. They were both Australorp chicks and will be companions for the one that hatched in the previous batch of eggs and is now four weeks old. I headed back outside and moved some of the wood chippings onto pathways between the vegetable beds and around the perennial border, when I came back in an hour later, chick number four had hatched.

Trying to keep busy, I bottled up the elderflower wine that we made. We now have 21 bottles of wine stored away that will be ready to drink in a few months.

 As the day went on, more chicks pipped (made a small hole in the shell) which was very exciting as we were already happy to have so many healthy looking little chicks. 

We finished setting up the secure pen for the ducks in the stable, complete with a heated lamp to keep them warm and got the nursery box ready for the chicks in the boot room. Late afternoon we moved the two ducklings and the oldest two chicks to their new accommodation. The little chicks immediately looked at home, snuggling under the brooder, cheeping away to each other. 

The ducklings however, looked cold and forlorn, so Mr J ran to into the house and found a suitable soft toy to put in with them. Almost as soon as they had the soft toy in the pen, they ran to it and sat down beside it. Snoopy toy is offering them comfort. But they still looked cold, so I placed towels over the top ends of the pen which would stop so much heat being leeched into the atmosphere and very quickly, the ducklings started to look warmer. It's a constant learning process here and despite being able to read masses of information and watch countless videos giving me a good idea of what to do, it is only with experience that we actually learn what works and what doesn't.

So by bedtime on Thursday we had eight chicks and two ducklings. We moved the two chicks that had hatched on Wednesday to the nursery box in the boot room, which made a little more space in the incubator and overnight another Australorp chick hatched.

Friday morning (today as I type) my daughter, her partner and my two grandsons came to visit us on their way home from a few days in Mid Wales. Grandson number one was very good about being quiet and not frightening the chicks and very good at counting them in the incubator. 

It was great to be able to show him a photo of the tractor that had come to deliver the wood chippings, but I suspect Mr J and I had been more excited about the tractor than he was.

After they had left, Mr J and I checked on the broody hen in her house and she had moved off the eggs to the main body of the hen house (leaving the eggs in the nesting box). Knowing that she couldn't have been off them for too long, I decided to remove them rather than let them go off and potentially cause an infection in the hen house. As we lifted one out, it cheeped! So we raced back into the house and put it into the incubator. We quickly candled the other eggs which were infertile so we disposed of those ones.

Within five minutes, the egg from the hen house had hatched. Another of the pale champagne colour, which was now the third one this colour. One in the nursery brooder box, one in the incubator and the hatched egg in the broody hen's house.  

We were beginning to lose count of the chicks and it was getting too crowded in the incubator, a lesson that I have learnt for next time (to put in fewer eggs at a time if we are going to have large breed birds in there), so we took six of the Australorps out and put them into a bucket to transfer to the nursery brooder. 

Didn't take them too long to settle in and find their food! 

To ensure that the incubator didn't become too dry, I sprayed some warm water on to the broken eggshells which increased the humidity without getting the chicks that were still in there damp. We noticed that there were two more eggs pipping and one was looking very dry. So I took the gamble and sprayed some warm water on to that egg in the hope that this would soften the membrane that had started to dry out. And about half an hour later the 'dry' egg was broken open by a small but perfect looking Australorp. We were now up to eight chicks in the nursery brooder box, three in the incubator and one under the broody hen.

The chick in the last egg that has pipped is still struggling its way out of the shell. It is heartbreaking to see a bird that is strong enough to break through the shell then fail to actually get out. But, I have come to realise that if it is not strong enough to hatch, then it's probably not strong enough to survive. 

I will update this blog as and when I have further news from the incubator.

Broody hen v incubator

Our last brood at three weeks old

Mr J and I are preparing for an exciting week ahead. By this time next week we should have a good idea of how many new chicks and ducklings we have. And we will then be able to compare how well the incubator and brooder do in comparison to the broody hen.

On 1st July I put ten duck eggs into the incubator. They were gathered over a period of twelve days and are the eggs from Frederick and Mrs Warne, who are Aylesbury ducks (a commercial strain rather than exhibition birds). When I candled them on day six there were three that were obviously unfertilised. Now I'm not quite sure how on earth she has managed to lay unfertilised eggs. His 'attention' to her is relentless and we have thought that we should get a couple more Aylesbury ducks, just to give her a bit of a break.

On the 5th July one of the Cream Legbar chickens became broody and because we had the space and some potentially fertile eggs, we moved her to an isolation house where she has been sitting on her clutch of at least six eggs. There may be more eggs if she laid a couple more after being moved. I haven't disturbed her to find out how many are under her, although I know that she has been lovingly attending to a rubber fake egg.

Then, on 6th July I put eleven Australorp eggs and four from our own girls into the incubator, which should mean (I hope) that the chickens will hatch just before or around the same time as the ducklings.

Last night, we had to remove one of the duck eggs. It had gone bad in the incubator and was smelling dreadfully, so that leaves us with six fertile duck eggs and fifteen hen eggs. Late on Sunday night I will take the supports out of the incubator, top up the water reservoirs and remove the turning cradle in readiness for the hatch in the next couple of days.

I did notice that the incubator was running a little cool during the first week, so the ducks may be slower to hatch, but it has been so warm for the last week that I think the incubator has been running a tad warmer than 37.5 degrees that it should be, so maybe that will bring them back on time. Having said all of that, I don't mind when they come just as long as they hatch safely and are healthy.

So, at some point next week, the grand hatch should start. I will try to video some of the chicks and ducklings hatching, but I also aim to spend quite a chunk of the hatching time either outside or away from the smallholding. For the last two hatches I haven't managed to get anything done. I have sat in the snug staring at the incubator, willing the eggs to break open and stupidly I have got quite stressed at watching little chicks try to break out of their shells and then fail, so thought that if I was out of the way, I wouldn't get upset.  I can almost hear Mr J's snort as I type this, he knows me well enough that my good intention of staying away from the incubator is unlikely to come to fruition. Although, if there is also activity in the broody hen's house, I will be torn between sitting inside or outside!

We are once again heading into unknown territory, ever eager to learn new skills and absorb new information, I feel a little worried about doing the right thing for the ducklings, but also know that instinct will tell me when it's the right time to take them from the incubator and put them into their pen in the stable under a heat lamp. And, I'm not sure when we are supposed to integrate the broody hen and her chicks back into the flock. So, to help me work out when I start to integrate the broody and her chicks, I am taking a webinar chicken raising course on Sunday evening.

Big Red and Little White enjoying a dust bath in their sand pit

I am comfortable that we are getting the process right for the chicks. Big Red and Little White are now eleven weeks old and live with Jack and Diesel on their side of the chicken field. Red is becoming a more handsome chap with each day and has been practising his crowing skills (he has a surprisingly deep voice for a young chap). Little White can't really be described as little any more as she is almost as big as Diesel, eventually she will be more than twice the size of Diesel. Of the four that hatched last time, I am increasingly convinced that we have one Jersey Giant cockerel and one hen, that the Australorp is a hen and the hybrid, well, I still can't work that one out!

So over the next month we will get to see whether the broody hen or incubator and electric brooder are less work, less complicated, more efficient and more productive. Even though it was purely coincidental that a hen went broody at the same time as we were ready to put the next eggs into the incubator, I am really pleased to be able to watch the differences in person.

Hatching chickens VIDEO

It's been another few days of learning faster than I'd like. I've been experimenting with some video software and, for a beginner who hasn't really played with anything like this before, I am quite pleased with the result. Hopefully my editing skills as well as my shaky camera work will improve in time!

So, here it is, a vlog of our latest hatchings. And if it won't play from the link above, you can find it on YouTube here.

Hatching day UPDATED

Yesterday was day 21 of the eggs being in the incubator, so it was hatching day. It's amazing that new life can grow in just 21 days inside eggs, they really are very clever things. Despite having promised myself that I wouldn't sit by the incubator for the better part of the day and that I'd just get on with tasks and ignore the incubator, I didn't manage to get through the day without returning time and again to the snug, where we have the incubator to see how the hatching was progressing.

As a reminder, we have 16 eggs in the incubator, although we started with twenty-six eggs, ten of them were not fertile (9 of the Australorp and one Jersey Giant), so we are hoping for three Australorps, eleven Jersey Giants and two hybrids. The two hybrid eggs from our smallholding were laid by Diesel (fertilised by the bantam cockerel that is with us at the moment).

By early evening, one little chick had hatched, it was one of the hybrids and although it's very small, it's feisty and loud which I am taking as a good sign. I stayed up rather later than I normal in the hope that I would see another chick (or more).

I was in that place where 'expectation meets reality' and having to accept that I can't make those little eggs pop open by sheer willpower or by being hopeful. I can't understand why the others didn't hatch yesterday, but perhaps the incubator was a little cooler than it was for the last hatching (which we did in a different incubator) or perhaps because the eggs were put into the incubator later in the day than the first batch. Who knows, but I did go to bed feeling rather despondent.

This morning the first chick is still alive and looking strong and, to my delight, three more eggs have pipped. I can see the small holes in the eggshells made by chicks getting ready to hatch. So it seems that today I will be in and out of the house again, checking for developments in the incubator. Typically, as I am writing my blog I can hear that there is movement in the incubator! The second chick has hatched, it's one of the White Jersey Giant eggs, which is delightful as it means that Little White will have a companion.

By mid afternoon today (Wednesday) a third chick had hatched, it's very tired having spent the better part of the day trying to release itself from the shell. And now I will have to wait to see whether any of the other eggs that have pipped will hatch a chick. I've been advised that hatching can be any time up to thirty-six hours after pipping, so I won't give up on the eggs left in the incubator just yet. I find it disappointing to have hatched only three so far from sixteen eggs and can't help but wonder if I've done something wrong. I will update this post again if more chicks hatch.

 

The next task for us is to make sure that everything is ready for the chicks to be moved into the brooder area once they are dry and fluffy. So Mr J and I have turned on the brooder which will keep them warm and put a small dish of chick food and grit and also a water dispenser filled with water, apple cider vinegar with garlic and honey. This mixture should provide some energy, help their gut health and promote their well-being.

 

There are changes afoot with the small flock outside. The cockerel that we have at the moment will being going to his new home on Sunday evening. He is obviously fertile as we have just hatched one of his chicks and I am sure that he will enjoy living with Helen on her smallholding and looking after her girls. We gave that small cockerel a home as we wanted to have some fertile eggs while we were waiting for the Cream Legbar cockerel that we have been promised by a well-respected Cream Legbar breeder. The new laddie is now ready to come to us and we will be collecting him at the weekend. The timing is perfect as we can keep the new boy in quarantine for a couple of days before he joins the girls in the field by which time the current cockerel will have left.

 

I've just checked the incubator one more time and we still have just the three chicks but on the plus side, they all look strong and healthy.

 

THURSDAY - UPDATE

It was somewhat of a surprise to come downstairs at 5am today to find another chick just pushing the last of it's shell off and looking big, strong and healthy. This is an Australorp chick, the only one to hatch and I am delighted that at least we have one now. It is the largest of the chicks that have hatched and certainly seems very robust. Within an hour of hatching it was up and running about in the incubator, steady on its feet and cheep-cheeping merrily.

 

Later in the day I spotted that another egg was trying to hatch but having difficulties breaking the shell. A while later and it was in trouble, so I looked online for information and sought advice from friends on social media (who have kept chickens) and then tried to help the little bird. It's now been several hours since we helped it and although it seems to be out of the shell, much of the membrane is still stuck to its feathers and it is desperately weak. I suspect that it is just a matter of time before the struggle to live becomes too much. Part of me wants to put it out of any misery it may be in, but the other half says to give the little fella (or gal) a chance to fight for survival. It's very hard to know what it is the best thing to do in this situation. So for now, we are going to leave it to rest and keep our fingers crossed that it will survive. I'll update again when I have more news about the fifth little chick.