Wednesday 30 May 2018

Much disappointment

One of the eggs, one of the ones I'd bough, was leaking.   I removed it from the incubator, in case it exploed and we put it in a sealed bag.  Research suggested there must have been bacteria in the egg, and the leaking as where gas had buit up and was forcing the liquid out of the shell.

We were worried about the other eggs and the hatched chicks.    Then a second one started leaking.  That was also removed.    We put the chicks in the brooder, quickly disinfected the incubator and put the remaining eggs back, on kitchen towel in case of further leaks.

One further chick hatched.  As soon as s/he was dry enough, the hatchling was moved to the brooder.  We monitored them very, very closely.  We also left the remaining eggs in the incubator for a few extra days.  No more hatched.  One of them, at least, should have. 

Meanwhile, we have 7 other eggs in another incubator, due to hatch in the next couple of days.   Some of the eggs were in with the failed eggs.  It's a worrying time.

We moved the now-4-day-old chicks to the shed brooder today.  We haven't used this shed as a brooder before. It's double insulated, so we've no idea how it's going to be, compared to our revious shed.   We've installed a camera and a baby monitor.

I hope they will be OK.


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