The great broody experiment (new pics p 18)

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Two more chicks this morning!!! One was still wet, so I abandoned my plans to remove all the unhatched eggs today. As long as she is willing to sit, I'll leave them under her! Six chicks now, five more unhatched eggs.....

 

[big brown horse]

Those chickie mothers sure know what they are doing don't they? Good for you!

 

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Checked again, and she'd abandoned the wet one....no choice, I think, as the other chicks keep running out of the nest to explore. So it was almost dead, still damp, and cold. The eggs were cold, too. So it is in a box in my kitchen warming up under a lamp, and it is now perking up and cheeping away. I'll put it back tonight. Think I got it in time. If she is not on those eggs again, I'll remove them later.

 

[big brown horse]

Thank God you were there to rescue it!

 

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It'd better not be a cockerel with all this effort!!! Pullet, pullet, pullet!!!!

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

It'd better not be a cockerel with all this effort!!! Pullet, pullet, pullet!!!!

ROTFL yea, pullet pullet pullet!

How's the little one doing today?

 

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"SHE" is out with her sibs, I tucked her under mama that night, and now I don't remember which one it was, that is how good "she...." is doing!!

It is so great to watch mama hen clucking happily every time she finds a worm for the babies. I use a trowel and help her get them all fed. One took off with a big white grub that was twice the size of her own head! She worked on it for a while, then a sibling stole it, thank goodness, because then she got a chance to eat some chick-size worms.

It is so wonderful to watch the whole process......

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

That's my favorite part of having a new mama with babies, watching them being in the yard together!

 

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OK, another crisis......one baby chicklet is in a box in my kitchen with a big peck on her back. Stupid chipmunks dig under my moveable coop and then the chicklets sometimes get out and in with the two month old chicks. Two were out when I got home from work today, and one had a bloody peck on her back, but no one was bothering her when I caught her up and without thinking, dumped her back in with mama, who immediately nailed her with a peck right on the dried blood target on her back.

So I snatched her up, boxed her up with a lamp, and fed her some worms and left her with some starter and water, listening to her occasional forlorn cheeps.

Oh, I washed her back with betadine. She still has a visible target, so I didn't put her back.

What do I do? I don't think she should be alone for long, so my thoughts are to keep her in just long enough that the wound is not so visible, then sneak her back in with the rest again.

She'd better be a she.....any ideas? Experience? Atta-girls???

 

[big brown horse]

Free, I have never had a problem removing a chick that needed doctoring for a few days. As soon as you are ready to slip it back under mama do it right when it gets dark enough for the mama to not stir up too much. The longer the chick is under the mom at night, the better. Usually in the morning everthing is back to normal. If you do this, then get up with the chickens to make sure the chick is doing well and not getting pecked in that spot again.