Weak chick/curled toes

[Tenafaye]

Hey there! I just helped a chick hatch and now they are weak. To kinda start from beginning...2/23 one of my eggs that I put in 2/2 started to pip. It made a hole in the egg and that was it for 24+hrs so I got it out and peeled the shell off, not completely around because I wanted to just help a little bit. 4hours go by and nothing has changed soo I peeled the shell all the way around and within 30min he pushed himself out. He seemed weak but I just thought he was so tired from trying to get out for so long. Fast forward to 2/24 he was still just acting tired/weak and I noticed his feet were curled up. An egg had hatched about 5hrs or so after him and was walking around in the incubator and puffed out. Well we made him little sandals to help him walk and put him in the broader with the other chicks. He seems so small compared to the others and I just worry about him. I guess I’m not really asking for anything in particular but if there is any advice I will gladly take it. I really don’t want to wake up to a dead chick. We kept getting under the other chicks and then screaming for help. Had anyone had this happen

 

[Smileybans]

I had a chick go through a bad hatch last month. Shipped eggs and only two made it to hatch out of 12. They were delayed in post for 2 weeks. One chick hatched no problem. The second makes a pip and then nothing for 12 hours. I keep checking on him and his chirp is getting weaker. So I peel back some of the egg. He had pipped at the wrong end and was malpositioned.

Well I put him back into the incubator because I thought he hadn’t fully absorbed his yolk. I saw some bright yellow and it scared me. At this point his membrane was already starting to dry out. But I put him back and left him for a couple hours. Longer than I would have liked to actually. But when I went back he was still alive. Weak. Very weak but hanging in there. I had to help him hatch the rest of the way and his membrane had dried by this point. He never would have gotten out on his own.

When he was finally out of his egg he rested. A lot. I left him in the incubator for at least 24 hours. When I took him out of the incubator he was so tiny. Dubbed The Littlest since he was half the size of his hatch mate. They actually had to be separated because his hatch mate would bully him. So I set up two brooder cages so they could see each other but not touch. The Littlest was still lonely so I gave him stuffies and a blanket that he snuggled under. Once he was separated from his hatch mate he was able to eat more and grow better.

Now he’s bigger than his hatch mate and super cute. They get along much better now. The first picture is The Littlest now and the second is when he was first hatched.

 

[Tenafaye]

I had a chick go through a bad hatch last month. Shipped eggs and only two made it to hatch out of 12. They were delayed in post for 2 weeks. One chick hatched no problem. The second makes a pip and then nothing for 12 hours. I keep checking on him and his chirp is getting weaker. So I peel back some of the egg. He had pipped at the wrong end and was malpositioned.

Well I put him back into the incubator because I thought he hadn’t fully absorbed his yolk. I saw some bright yellow and it scared me. At this point his membrane was already starting to dry out. But I put him back and left him for a couple hours. Longer than I would have liked to actually. But when I went back he was still alive. Weak. Very weak but hanging in there. I had to help him hatch the rest of the way and his membrane had dried by this point. He never would have gotten out on his own.

When he was finally out of his egg he rested. A lot. I left him in the incubator for at least 24 hours. When I took him out of the incubator he was so tiny. Dubbed The Littlest since he was half the size of his hatch mate. They actually had to be separated because his hatch mate would bully him. So I set up two brooder cages so they could see each other but not touch. The Littlest was still lonely so I gave him stuffies and a blanket that he snuggled under. Once he was separated from his hatch mate he was able to eat more and grow better.

Now he’s bigger than his hatch mate and super cute. They get along much better now. The first picture is The Littlest now and the second is when he was first hatched. View attachment 2544374View attachment 2544375

Well that gives me hope!! Maybe I need to separate him..the problem is we only have one heat lamp

 

[Smileybans]

I only have one heat lamp as well. My brooder is actually a room in my house. So I had to set up an area with green garden fencing for one chick and the other area was a top to a cage. One of those cages where the bottom is plastic and the top is wire. This worked out because my heat lamp is suspended from the ceiling.

Is it possible to add a divider in your brooder? Maybe just some extra fencing would work. You could use a heating pad, regular 60w light bulb, or a wooly hen for the other side of the brooder. I made a wooly hen for The Littlest and he loved it. If only to snuggle in the fabric.

 

[Tenafaye]

I only have one heat lamp as well. My brooder is actually a room in my house. So I had to set up an area with green garden fencing for one chick and the other area was a top to a cage. One of those cages where the bottom is plastic and the top is wire. This worked out because my heat lamp is suspended from the ceiling.

Is it possible to add a divider in your brooder? Maybe just some extra fencing would work. You could use a heating pad, regular 60w light bulb, or a wooly hen for the other side of the brooder. I made a wooly hen for The Littlest and he loved it. If only to snuggle in the fabric.

So we have them in a tote container and shavings and then that’s inside a wire kennel bc of our doggies lol but I never thought of a heating pad! I think we will try the 60w light bulb...what is a wooly hen? This is my first time to hatch chicks

 

[Smileybans]

I had to look up a wool hen for The Littlest. But really it’s just bits of fabric, fleece is what’s used most but I used a fleece like blanket, hung down through holes in a box. The chick uses its own body heat and the fabric to stay warm. For mine I just took the fabric and draped it over the wire of the cage. The key to it working, and the chicks not getting tangled, is to have it not touch the floor of the brooder.

I used a tote container to brood my first set of chicks. Actually my first incubator was a tote. Did you think of a way to separate your chick?

 

[Jaslynn]

I had a chick, Betty, who was an assisted hatch. I left her to hatch unaided for quite a while before deciding to intervene. When she finally hatched her toes were so mashed up that they were like fists. I made her shoes but her feet just didn’t improve. she wouldn’t walk far. She would drink only if I took her to water and only ate when I made her a watered down egg yolk mixture. Sadly, despite trying so hard to save her, she died when she was a week old. She didn’t thrive at all and still looked like a day old chick. It felt like she just never chose to live, her toes were possibly too painful
However, another chick that hatched at the same time and had mildly deformed toes was fine after 1.5 days in shoes, ate, drank and moved around normally and is now 2 weeks old and seems healthy.