Shrink Wrapped or Sticky Chicks? Why Chicks Have Difficulty Hatching

By Chrissy in CA

Hatching eggs isn’t always as easy as setting eggs in an incubator, waiting 21 days, and waking up to chicks on the twenty-first morning. There are a few things that can go wrong – especially in less-expensive incubators. Humidity and temperature issues can cause chicks to become “shrink wrapped” or to be overly-sticky at hatch.

The highest risk of shrink wrapping is after the eggs have externally pipped, have already been in lock down with high humidity... and then the incubator is opened for some reason. If the ambient humidity in the room is lower and the temp is cooler than the humidity and temp are inside of the incubator, (which is often the case) then opening an incubator lets a rush of cool, dry air into the incubator that exchanges with/replaces the warm moist air in the incubator, and does this inside the eggs as well. That is what dries out and shrinks the membranes. The membranes were moist, and then quickly lost moisture and shrank when the cold dry air rushed in. This is why incubator instructions always clearly state not to open the incubator until the hatch is completely over. 

Shrink wrapping can also happen to eggs that have only internally pipped, but is a little less likely and less damaging since the air and humidity can't exchange as quickly thru an un-pipped shell. This is why we can get away with waiting to lock down eggs until they have internal pipped and we can also candle prior to lock down without doing damage. Personally, I wait until I see internal pips before locking down... I have never had any shrink wrapping issues doing this.

High temps can also cause shrink wrapping, especially in forced air incubators with fans when there is not enough humidity in the incubator. Moisture is continually being lost at a time when the chick needs a little extra moisture to keep the membrane from becoming leathery/tough, when the chick needs to stay slick enough to spin in the eggs and also when the extra moisture is needed to keep the shell a little softer.

Sticky chicks are usually caused by overly high humidity during incubation that did not allow the chick to grow as large as it should have or let the egg lose enough moisture as the chick developed, so at hatch time those chicks are coated with more liquid (albumen) than they should be. A sticky chick's movement is restricted, but the stronger chicks usually manage to hatch ok (just extra sticky). The weak chicks will expire trying to hatch because they just don't have the strength. if they can't spin, and can't zip, they expire. Sometimes that extra sticky liquid can clog the chick's nostrils (aka drowning the chick), and the sticky liquid can also cause the opening of the internally pipped membrane to glue down onto the chick's nostril shortly after they have pipped internally, suffocating it.

(This chick was "sticky" at hatch, but is now a healthy, happy pullet.)

This is why it is important to know your incubator – practice managing the temperature and humidity prior to trying to hatch chicks. If you are experiencing losses at hatch, chances are it has to do with one of the above factors. Invest in a good hygrometer (or 2) and good thermometer(s) to keep inside your incubator – checking them regularly throughout incubation and hatch should alert you to any issues.

To hatch chicks, an incubator should remain at about 99.5 °Ffor all 21 days. Many people use a “dry incubation” method where humidity levels are kept lower (16% - 40%) up until the eggs internally pip, while other people keep their humidity a bit higher (40%-50%) throughout incubation.

At lockdown or after the chicks have internally pipped, humidity should be raised to about 65% and the incubator should not be opened until the last chick has hatched... or they'll chop your fingers off with a light saber...

(Just kidding! But I did think this picture was cute - the reflection of my flashlight used for candling gave the appearance my chicks were Jedi knights.)

Hope this helps, and happy hatching!

Chrissy in CA -

(Photos and lame humor by Leigh) 

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Update on the Cracked Egg

If you have not already read the story of how one of my fertile and developing eggs was cracked, you can read it HERE.

I should mention that while I don't feel the use of medical tape intervention to be "natural," I can only say that with such an important egg at stake, the tape worked.

And now what you've been waiting for...

Proof!!

 Poor little "Humpty Dumpty" is a little stickier than its siblings. When I removed the tape from the egg, the tape pulled a nickle-size piece of shell off with it. This resulted in higher moisture loss while the chick was hatching and some of the membrane dried on the chick.

 Group photo - Humpty is in the far right.

 A sibling... just because.

 And the other sibling. Aren't they precious?

I'm happy to say that mom is doing very well with her new babies. I should mention that Mamma (a Silkie X Bantam Cochin) turned 25 weeks of age only yesterday! Yup - she went broody at 23 weeks after starting laying at only 20 weeks of age. (She was given eggs that had already been developing for a week.) I have a feeling she's going to be a great mamma to a lot of chicks in her life...  The best incubators are the ones that peck when you try to candle the eggs!

So, that's the story of a cracked and dented egg. Luckily for me medical tape did a better job than all the king's horses and all the king's men did in the classic children's rhyme, and this story has a much happier ending!

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Tiny Heartbeat - Chicken Embryo at 48 Hours Incubation

By Justine -

At 48 hours into incubation, I candled my eggs to see if I could see veining for the first time... just out of curiosity, as they are my much anticipated Barred Plymouth Rocks. 

Unfortunately this egg was cracked in two places and leaking Albumen (egg white) - so I had to toss it. Before doing so, I thought it would be interesting to see what was going on at 48 hours.

If you look very closely, you can just make out the heart - still beating.

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The heart continued to beat for roughly 5 minutes. I took this video after it had already started to slow. 

Justine

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From Brooder to Flock Member - Integrating Chicks Into The Flock

How do you integrate your new chicks into your existing flock? Here’s what a few of us had to say on the subject:

Justine of Les Farms Says:

I integrated by having a run with little holes along the bottom just for the babies. They could get in and out, and the older birds could not get in (other than the Silkies - which was fine by me). 

It wasn't pretty, but it worked.. it worked really well.

This is on the outside. Chicks came through the holes and free ranged early.

Vicki Says:

My situation is different than most. I usually have broody's raising chicks so the flock is used to seeing chicks running around. I do not confine in a sense that most do.

Yes - I also brood chicks in a brooder.

When it is time to go outdoors… they go with the big birds.

They can get out of the building and they can get out of the fencing, but larger birds can't get in.

Then they graduate to another building when the next group comes.

They have access to the whole yard, yet can't free range yet. You have to be a laying adult and have the mental capacity to avoid predators.

The doors are kept open and all ages co-mingle all day long. I have about 20 food stations and 4 watering stations. My chicken yard looks horrible and messy, but it works for me. The adults are gone for most of the day eating out in the pastures, and the only ones inside the fencing are juveniles and babies. They all run through the 1/4 acre yard surrounded by a 7 foot high fence. I have 3 smaller fenced in side area's just in case I need to confine. We are presently working on two more. Next year I will have to confine more breeds to collect eggs and ship chicks. I added BCM to the Cuckoo. I also added the two varieties of Wyandottes.

Leigh Says:

While I prefer to have broody hens hatch and raise my chicks, it simply isn’t always possible. Hens don’t tend to go broody on command, and when they do go broody, they often all go broody at once. 

I hatch chicks throughout the season, and when I don’t have a broody, I have to use a brooder (mine is a large Rubbermaid container). When it is time for the chicks to start venturing outdoors, I set up my chick play yard. 

As the mother of 3 human children, I happened to keep 2 collapsible plastic outdoor playpens. They snap together to make one large yard which I set up under a big pine tree in the middle of the chicken yard. It makes the perfect cover to hide the chicks from aerial predators, and to deter my older flock members from jumping in to join the chicks.

 

This way my chicks can see and safely “meet” the older chickens though the plastic panels.

When I feel the chicks are old enough to fend for themselves (or run away fast enough) I let them loose as the flock free ranges. This can be a tough time because the older chickens will peck the little ones. Interestingly, I find it is most often the lowest chickens in the pecking order that are the worst about picking on the babies. I think it’s because finally these older chickens feel they aren’t on the bottom any more, and they want to keep those babies lower than they are on the pecking order.

Regardless of whether a chick is raised under a broody or in a brooder, they all have to go through a period of time where they establish themselves within the flock. This is the hardest time for us as humans to watch. Chickens are bullies - - but if we constantly intercede, the chicks will never become part of the flock. These are the times we have to stand back, plug our ears and not watch for a bit and let nature handle it.

During this intermediate phase, I allow all the chickens to free range together, but I keep the chicks in a large parrot cage inside the coop at night. I don’t like confining the flock in a small space together when there is still discourse. After a few weeks in separate digs (where they can all still see each other), the growing chicks are usually ready to perch with the older ones. In fact as I write this, two of my 9-week-old Swedish Flower Hen chicks are perching right up with the older flock members in the coop. 

So tell us - how do you integrate your chicks into the flock?

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How Do Chickens "Do It?" Chicken Sex Explained

Well this wasn’t the post I had planned on doing today, but when I trotted outside with my camera to capture some artistic chicken shots on this glorious day, I was treated to a real lens full. Compliments of my Swedish Flower Hen rooster (yes – that is an oxymoron, but the capitalized part is the actual breed name) and one of his Swedish Flower Hen… hens, I found myself with the material for an educational course on the birds and the bees… with an emphases on the birds.

You know? This may seem in rather poor taste to post all of this, but if you are reading this blog, chances are you live on a farm or farmette, or at very least you have or want chickens. I think those of us who are farmers or farmers at heart realize that animals aren’t exactly shy about what (or who) they do or where/when they do it.

(Photo source unknown, but clearly brilliant!)

 So please consider this a warning. If you are easily offended or embarrassed, 

Stop Reading NOW!

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If you are still reading, I will assume that you will not be offended or call me out for posting chicken porn on this blog. Further, I will assume you are either curious about how eggs get fertilized, or you simply can't live without knowing how I am going to approach this delicate subject in such a public manner.

As the mother of 3 children, it would be all to easy to start out with, "When a daddy chicken loves a mommy chicken very, very much..." 

But you know? We're all grownups here. These are chickens, not humans, so let's keep it real. 

It all begins with a hormonally-charged rooster looking for all the world as if he is using Joey's line from the sitcom Friends... "How you doin'?"

Then the Fabio side of Mr. Roo (his name is Gunnar) kicks in for the foreplay. If he could speak, I think it might sound something like: "Hello very fine lady. Do you see the lovely and flamboyant dance that I do just for you. I have lowered my shockingly well-formed wing so as to allow you to see my beautiful feathers. You are impressed, no?"

"Are you not paying attention to my amorous advances, sexy lady? Do you not think me divine?"

"Shall I share my awesomeness with you?"

And here, you can practically hear Astrid's exclamation of "Ooofff" as Gunnar takes a sudden and rather clumsy leap onto her back and balances with one foot on either of her shoulders.

The act that follows takes the balance and skill of Tom Cruise's character in Mission Impossible as he navigates some ridiculously unrealistic obstacle course of deadly laser beams that we all know were electronically added in during editing. (As an aside, I initially spelled "obstacle" wrong and my spell check wanted to change it to "obstetrical." Hmmm... very insightful for my little HAL 9000.)

"Watch as Gunnar delicately navigates this obstetrical course..."

Sometimes Gunnar uses his wings much like a tightrope walker uses a balance pole. Hey - it takes skill to stand on someone's shoulders while having "relations" with them... not that I would know from experience.. but... ahem - moving right along...

The above photo that captured the actual 2 seconds where the "home run" happened.

Excerpt from the post Chickens, Eggs, Fertilization, Reproduction and Other Insider Information:

"When a rooster mates with a hen, he mounts her and, standing on her back, lowers his cloaca (vent) and the hen inverts her own cloaca to meet with his. There is no penetration, but the sperm packet released by the male is taken into the hen's cloaca or vent. From there the sperm makes its way to the infundibulum where it awaits the release of an ovum. Sperm can live in the infundibulum for more than 2 weeks."

Yeah - about 2 seconds is all the splendor in the grass that hen can expect.

Chicken folks will call this part "head-skating", "shoulder-surfing" or just "mating."

(And I call this postition, "The Vulture" he whispered softly into her ear as he fell off her back.)

That's right... shake it off!

A quick, post-coital snuggle...

"Quick! Act like nothing happened! Here comes one of my other wives!"

"I'll call you... "

And then comes the egg - though it can take a few days for eggs to be fertile after the first mating of a hen and roo. Also, eggs can be fertile for up to 3 weeks following the last 2-second romantic encounter between birds.

Even hens without roosters in the yard can go broody, but of course only fertile eggs will hatch.

"Look at me when I'm screaming at you, Mr.! First I push about a dozen objects larger then my own head out of my cloaca, and then I have to SIT here for 21 days! Did you HEAR that? Twenty-one days... while you... what? While you're off doing the wing-dance for that hussy, Ginger!"

And then come chicks!

And that, my friends, is where baby chickens come from!


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