Need advice on first time mama hens/baby chicks

FatChicksDigMe said:

Any update?!

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holm25 said:

X2!?!?!?!?

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No so far not she's been sitting on the eggs so I can barely see them, but I can see that none have actually hatched I looked up how long it takes for and egg to hatch once it starts on google and it says up to 24 hours? That seems like an awfully long time but it's been 24 hours by now so what could have gone wrong? The baby chick is doing well, the pekin seemed to have put on a bit of weight when I picked her up to clean her eyes thismorning she felt a little heavier so that might be a good sign, she's still very sick otherwise though. I guess I'll just leave these eggs alone this week and if nothing happens then cut my losses. If something does happen I'll be on here Straight away though for sure

Is the one chick still alive?

Sorry I haven't been on things got really hectic this year .. At the time that you posted yes he grew up to become a gorgeous buff coloured rooster that looked much like his pekin mama and behaved much like his wynedotte papa who was also super cuddly and cheeky. The other eggs never hatched and his mama sadly passed from illness not long after too but when he was about 5 months old something went wrong and I lost him as well, I went out to see them and he was laying in the rain as if he had been attacked or broken his leg (there was no evidence of an attack other than that he clearly was injured some how) I'm unsure if he jumped from the top of the coop and hurt himself or if he (I don't even want to say it ) possibly had markes disease, which was an after thought to me that it might have been possible, but I don't really understand how he could be SO healthy, in the morning he could be normal and then later in the day he collapses unless it was an accidental injury? Anyway I'm so worried about it now, My other hens are more than fine very happy girls haven't shown as much as a sniffle through this year's winter, but I'm terrified of if he was sick as I've just got new chicks to add them to my 'flock' and I guess I worry if my girls could now be carriers of whatever stole my pekin away I guess that time will tell..

People who have come to know me on this site are familiar with my being a stickler on getting a necropsy when "unexplained" deaths occur in their flock. Recently, an OP replied, "A necropsy is the last thing on my mind right now, I just want to spend the next three days crying my eyes out". Fair enough, but that isn't going to help their flock or provide information that may prevent future deaths.

Your situation is one I'm very familiar with - losing a hen and then having her offspring also die early. When the handsome young Buff Brahma cockerel died at eleven months, a friend and I located a lab that did necropsies and we drove his refrigerated body there. Within a couple hours, I had the results. My cockerel had been infected in his egg by a virus called lymphotic leucosis. His Buff Brahma egg donor had died of the disease just a few months prior.

Unfortunately, there is no cure, no vaccination, but now I know what it is that has been killing some members of my flock over the past years. I now know I have a "closed flock" and can't export chickens from it, and any new chicks or adults I bring in will be exposed and have a chance of dying from the disease. But when they do, I have the bitter fortune of knowing what killed them. Meanwhile most are resistant to the disease and in good health due to being well cared for.

You may find something preventable is responsible for the deaths in your flock. Whatever the results show, you will have more knowledge with which to manage your flock going forward, to make them better off than they would be without knowing what is killing them.

Yeah this is true.. I did enquire at local vets who are unhelpful, and also recently at the vets and stock feeds about vaccinations for my expectant new chicks too because for me this was a concern but unfortunately there isn't much offered for chickens around here I only have Two hens now since I sent my rooster to a friends property (before the one chick hatched) so the original two hens that were around back then are here but so far haven't had any kind of health issues, they are actually healthier than ever since I've moved house (my old neighbour used to burn treated pine and rubbish round the clock all seasons of the year, I swear it made my chickens sick EPA/police etc wouldn't do anything about it I complained 42 times in the 12 months before I finally moved!) I suppose moving house should have stressed them out a bit and could have potentially triggered an illness they hadn't yet suffered from, which didn't happen so could be a good sign? I'm not too experienced with chickens yet, I'm trying to learn a lot and have all the right answers of what to do but haven't had them long, so I'm hoping that I'm wrong about him being ill and that he genuinely was injured (google has so many possible answers for something that could be a simple broken leg) The mama didn't have the same issue as he did she was deathly ill on and off for a while with a cold and an eye infection where as he was just one day unable to get back up he was so healthy up until that very point, it really was a shock to me! But I'm scared that it could have been the markes disease and with no vaccinations available for me there's nothing I can really do except for try to see if I can add some chickens with no problems. two isn't enough for a flock I'm never gonna re-home my girls they are part of our family now, and once I get the numbers up a little then I'll have no desire (or room, because I don't want my yard to turn to dust, I have a limit so that the balance between their free range grazing/digging and the garden growth stays) to bring more in. I'll definitely be taking a risk, but I'm hoping that it all works out. We already eat more eggs per week than we get from two hens and my family wants me to start to supply them as well .. I sure do wish that I knew for sure what happened but honestly at the time with the rooster I just automatically assumed he was hurt not ill it was only in hind sight reading that I thought possibly he had lost control of his leg but the mama was definitely fighting a losing battle and I couldn't find the right answer, No medicine helped her she just got sick again after she got better we did all we could at the time. If these chicks do get ill then I guess I'll know that something is being carried and have to reassess my opinions but so far I rather see how it goes then risk one of my hens ending up all alone if something happens to the other, having the rubbish luck I've had I'm hoping that both of them enjoy a long life together now though and that everything works out. I look after my chickens well, it sucks so bad that they can get so many problems and I hate that there isn't more accessible out there for their health care. A piece of our hearts belong to that pekin mama pom pom was the most beautiful children in the world.