cefreeman Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Hi, my clutch started to hatch 2 days ago in my incubator, 2 are now in the brooder and another hatched this morning! my concern is the newly hatched chick took ages to eventually emerge from the shell and seems to have dried out but no sign of fluffing up and is caked in dried on muck! Has anyone ever had this problem before and if so what am I to do! She (hopefully) is still in incubator and hopefully when she is a bit stronger do you think she'd be able to clean it off or should I try to attempt it! Any advise would much appreciated !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 You have two options I guess.. One would be to whip the chick out now, clean it gently with some warm water, give it a quick towel dry and pop it back to dry out, this would mean losing the humidity in the incubator though which could affect eggs still to hatch The other option would be just to leave it in the inccy for a while longer to see if it fluffs up, if not you could do the above or just remove it to the brooder and it should preen itself over the next few days - the trouble is that chicks peck at each other if they have stuck together feathers Personally I'd be inclined to do option 1, popping the damp chick back in the inccy will help raise the humidity against quite swiftly it will also give you a chance to check the chick over as it shouldnt hatch in a messy state so check its not dry blood etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
