Saturday, October 4, 2008

Unfucking Fair

I've decided the experts are wrong and from here on out, I'll continue with my Chick Midwifery.

I'm so fucking pissed. This morning at 6:45am Mr. Ashley told me I had a chick halfway out of its egg. I get up, check it, it's fine, doing great actually. Get little kid up and dressed, we check the chick again, it's fine. I start messing with my new coffee maker, check the chick again, see a piece of shell sort of dangling annoyingly and go grab my tweezers to pluck it off...and the chick was dead.

Within 5 minutes, with no wetness anywhere, a perfectly good chick that really only needed the shell hanging onto it removed in order to be "hatched" was dead. God damn it.

little kid was heartbroken and we had to have the garbage can fight again. When I told him the chick wasn't waking up he let out the saddest, "Ohhhh".

I did let him hold Chicka this morning. Last night he would say, "Mum, hug?" and wrap his arms around himself. No, Chicka is too little I'd reply. "Hold?" he'd ask, cupping his hands. So this morning, with my hands cupped carefully under his and over a soft mountain of pine shavings, I let him hold her.

Murphy and one cat have noticed Chicka and want to kiss her on the lips. Unsupervised visits are currently not allowed.

Anyway, be warned, I'm doing shit my own way from here on out. If it's a risk either way, I'm going to err on the side of playing doctor.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, so sorry to hear that you lost the chick. That is so weird especially since it seemed to be doing so well.

Marketing Gurl said...

Okay this just tears at your heart strings.

Melodie said...

Sorry to hear about Chickie #3. You need to do what you feel is best, Momma. They're your babies.

Kristen Howard Photography said...

okay I live on a farm and we have tons of chickens so here's the deal NEVER pull any piece of shell off if the chick is dry. Just wet it a little with warm water and pull it off. My husband raises bantams and we have a huge incubator and if he has an egg that's pipped (hatching) then he takes the shell off the TOP HALF OF THE EGG. ONLY the top half and they'll work themselves out. Also you might want to check your humidity and raise it a little. You're doing a great job:)

Anonymous said...

Kitty wants to kiss chicky on the lips allright ;) I'd watch out for that one.

I won't tell you what happened to my gerbil when I was 7.

Anonymous said...

I still can't believe how tricky this is.

Jeannie said...

how sweet that your little one wants to hug the chicky......


I, too, didn't realize how hard hatching was for chicks....