Fuzziness, with all its delightfulness and cuteness and excitement, isn't always warm.
Saturday, right on cue, some of our eggs began to pipe. By the time I went to bed around midnight, I had two little balls of fluff outside in the brooder box and up to 7 eggs piping (the first crack they make, shaped like an x). When I left for choir practice Sunday morning we had 4 little wet birds in the incubator, one which had a small hernia type problem that concerned me. That afternoon my wonderful mother-in-law went to our house (I wouldn't make it back home Sunday until about 8pm) and moved them to the brooder box (their fur is supposed to dry before removing them from the first heat source). Between its thrashing around in the incubator and the other biddies pecking at its wound, it didn't survive the night. Not a fuzzy feeling.
This is the first time we've hatched such a large quantity of eggs, and I'm a bit startled at how rough and tough these chicks are. All the manuals and forums tell you how gentle to be with the eggs and how they shouldn't be handled hardly at all. But, when they're in the nest with Momma, they are heaped one on top of the other (so she can sit on all of them), and when she turns them, she either slaps them with her foot or pecks at them with her beak. Neither of those things are exactly gentle.
Even though I know all that, it was still a bit shocking to watch these chicks kick their fellow eggmates around, crawl on them, even peck at their beaks as they try to break free from their shell. And this morning, after having six more hatch during the night and join the others in the incubator, one of my tiniest darlings died. The other chicks had a habit of sitting on its head, so I don't know if there was something wrong with it or if the cute little fuzzballs are actually angry birds and just killed it. I find the last possibility very disturbing.
We have three eggs left; one of them is trying to hatch now. Once things settle down a bit (and if I don't find another face-down non-moving biddie when I go out with the camera again), I will most definitely have pics coming.
Saturday, right on cue, some of our eggs began to pipe. By the time I went to bed around midnight, I had two little balls of fluff outside in the brooder box and up to 7 eggs piping (the first crack they make, shaped like an x). When I left for choir practice Sunday morning we had 4 little wet birds in the incubator, one which had a small hernia type problem that concerned me. That afternoon my wonderful mother-in-law went to our house (I wouldn't make it back home Sunday until about 8pm) and moved them to the brooder box (their fur is supposed to dry before removing them from the first heat source). Between its thrashing around in the incubator and the other biddies pecking at its wound, it didn't survive the night. Not a fuzzy feeling.
This is the first time we've hatched such a large quantity of eggs, and I'm a bit startled at how rough and tough these chicks are. All the manuals and forums tell you how gentle to be with the eggs and how they shouldn't be handled hardly at all. But, when they're in the nest with Momma, they are heaped one on top of the other (so she can sit on all of them), and when she turns them, she either slaps them with her foot or pecks at them with her beak. Neither of those things are exactly gentle.
Even though I know all that, it was still a bit shocking to watch these chicks kick their fellow eggmates around, crawl on them, even peck at their beaks as they try to break free from their shell. And this morning, after having six more hatch during the night and join the others in the incubator, one of my tiniest darlings died. The other chicks had a habit of sitting on its head, so I don't know if there was something wrong with it or if the cute little fuzzballs are actually angry birds and just killed it. I find the last possibility very disturbing.
We have three eggs left; one of them is trying to hatch now. Once things settle down a bit (and if I don't find another face-down non-moving biddie when I go out with the camera again), I will most definitely have pics coming.
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