Monday 12 May 2008

Out at last!

After hours and hours of struggle, the tiny chick at last manages to push away the top of the shell, and with a twist of its body, emerges to start it's like.

It is still wet at this stage, and very exhausted. I leave it in the incubator until it is dry and fluffy, before transferring it to a brooder pen under a heat lamp.

It carries sufficient reserves from the yolk within the body to sustain it for 24 hours or more, so there is no need for food or water within the incubator, but the brooder has a feeder full of chick crumbs, and a drinker kept full of fressh clean water.

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