greene's blog: Dottie is dead. A new chick hatched this morning!!!

For those of you who may have read my real-life blog at https://www.therealmgreene.com and know about my little chicken named Dottie, sadly, she is dead.

She developed a severe vent prolapse. If you don't know what that is I would strongly advise that you do NOT try to find images. Basically, her insides were outside and, I worked hard and did all the right things, her vent would stay not inside and she was in severe pain.

I wrapped her in a towel and carried her to my neighbor down the street. He's had tons of experience raising chickens. He was kind enough to put Dottie out of her misery.

Later today I will dig a hole and bury her and plant a tree in the same space.

Tears.



Update:
I dug hole after hole and after hitting good old Georgia clay in each of 5 places, I went ahead and buried Dottie and will revise my plan. No tree would be happy in a clay hole so I'll build a small raised bed over the spot and plant small shrubs, herbs, and flowers.

Edit:
I have 6 eggs in the incubator. This morning I took one of the dogs for a walk and came home to find that one of the chicks has already hatched. Two days early!!


Short YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Update:
April 5 2019
So far, 4 of the 6 eggs have hatched. Of the 4, two have feathered legs like the Brahma rooster, 2 have no feathers on their legs. I am still waiting for eggs #5 and #6. They may not have a successful hatch.

This is the first chick to hatch:


Here we have chick #2 and #3:


I'll try to get more photos when I can. Thanks for watching the progress. I have not hatched chicken eggs since way back in the day when my older daughter did this as a science project...over 35 years ago!!

Update. May 26, 2019
Hatching eggs might be addictive. The first batch of 6 hatched by April 6th; the second batch of 5 hatched by April 26th. Of the 11, I only lost one chick due to an unabsorbed yolk sac. This week all 10 are outside in their temporary coop/run.
Here are the 10 chicks.


My two dogs, Jack and George, enjoy watching the 'babies'. Here is a link to a YouTube video of the dogs interacting with the chicks. Warning, George is very loud!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

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