Urgent Hatching Advice please! (Julie!?)
Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 9:10 am
Hi,
If anybody (particularly Julie!) could help here, I would be really grateful - we have a bantam sitting on eggs (in a nesting box)- there were 12 in total. We have had one healthy chick, but two have died - the first had made a hole in the shell but then must have died before it had the energy to peck through the rest. The second one I helped out (not wanting the same thing to happen again) by teasing away most of the shell - it was breathing, and we left it in the nest. When we went back to check a couple of hours later, although the bantam was sitting on it, it was dead - we don't know why.
Am I missing something obvious here? I have done a bit of reading and thought it may be a humidity issue, but what to do about it? I do have a capillary mat, and wondered if dampening this and putting it underneath the nest may help? It is not particularly cold or hot where we are.
Would be really grateful if anyone could suggest anything else, before we loose any more. I didn't expect all 12 to hatch of course, but don't want to loose more than is necessary, poor little things.
Thanks in advance,
Bonnie
If anybody (particularly Julie!) could help here, I would be really grateful - we have a bantam sitting on eggs (in a nesting box)- there were 12 in total. We have had one healthy chick, but two have died - the first had made a hole in the shell but then must have died before it had the energy to peck through the rest. The second one I helped out (not wanting the same thing to happen again) by teasing away most of the shell - it was breathing, and we left it in the nest. When we went back to check a couple of hours later, although the bantam was sitting on it, it was dead - we don't know why.
Am I missing something obvious here? I have done a bit of reading and thought it may be a humidity issue, but what to do about it? I do have a capillary mat, and wondered if dampening this and putting it underneath the nest may help? It is not particularly cold or hot where we are.
Would be really grateful if anyone could suggest anything else, before we loose any more. I didn't expect all 12 to hatch of course, but don't want to loose more than is necessary, poor little things.
Thanks in advance,
Bonnie