chicks dead due ' sloppy ' mom-hen , only 4 out of 18 to go ,help needed

[strangeanimal]

Hi everyone ,

My free rangers Old English Games have a few hens that were so consistent in their hatching , there was nothing that could break all of them , only one of them was atleast not to be broken at all , no matter the efforts , wherever she found eggs , she went to sit on it .
She has been hatching now and ofcourse chicks were born about a big week ago ,
at first she managed fine with her little ones but now I noticed that from the 8 chicks she hatched in this batch , only 4 have survived ! So I started investigating both the chicks and the hen to see what exactly caused it .
Before this batch she hatched out even more chicks but those are now in the care of some of the people living in the house closest to the trees and so the chickens , the reason ? just the same one ,
out of the many chicks only 6 survived ! one got taken by a crow , OK about this but now about our mom hen ?
Approaching her results in this :
Leaving the chicks defenseless on their own ! she is flighty and gets into trees while the chicks on the ground couldn't follow their mother and are struggling their way trough the forest .
One of them was even left behind when she was walking around for food and the poor little one got too cold and hid in the grass for hours ! When the man living there found the chick , he was stunned that the chick had survived due the lower temperatures during that day ! He took the poor little one inside and by the stove it finally started to make noises again , now today was a disaster ! the chicks are quite strong in fact and can stand deflecting temperatures but as young as they are they ofcourse need their mothers warmth ! mother hen went into the trees and left the babies behind for 2 hours , I could just grab them or a crow could , after two long hours she went to her chicks , one died right away under one of her wings , the remaining chicks are constantly trying to hold up with mama but she is not paying any attention to the youngsters , altough when you take them away she is in huge panic !
What can I do if I take these little ones inside ?? Because I do not see any other options anymore , no surviving chicks due a sloppy ma doesn't sound like how it should go , right ?
taking her inside with the chicks is out of the question as she is a " wild bird " , used for years to live entirely free and on large ground she is screaming it out when you take her in IF you could catch her !
I have never raised chicks before by the ' human hand ' only so how do I handle this ??? and what to give them as feed if there is no chickfeed ? I can tough make small feed from scratch but what is the main grain that is used into chickfeed because I have all kinds of grains but I have no idea what to give them nor how to keep them ? in a box is also not an option as these chicks are exellent in flying and crying and looking for their mum ...
I ty in advance !

 

[JaeG]

Is this her first time hatching chicks? Sometimes it doesn't go so well the first time and she'll hopefully become a better mother next time around. You'll need to provide the chicks with a heat lamp until they have grown most of their feathers. If you can't get chick feed you could mix your own but you'll have to grind up the ingredients and, depending on where you are, the ingredients can be a challenge to find. This site has two recipes:
http://wholefedhomestead.com/homemade-organic-baby-chick-starter-feed-recipe/

As it will take a little while to find those things I'd give them scrambled eggs and plain oats cooked up with some milk.

 

[bobbieschicks]

Some girls make better mommas then others. I've had broody girls that raised their adopted babies up until 7 weeks or older. I've had broody girls who would abandon the chicks at 4 weeks of age. I even had one who was a great mom but so bad at hatching eggs I could only give her hatched chicks to raise.

Make a heated area for the babies if your temperatures are low and they are not feathered out yet. Otherwise I'd just make sure they have shade, water and food and let what happens happen. The chicks that survive the flighty mom not caring for them will be stronger and healthier then ones you take inside in a brooder.

 

[Katrina89]

Oh my goodness... How old is the hen? If she's young, maybe she'll be a better mom when she's older? Hmm, I'm not exactly sure what you should do with the poor chicks...

 

[Then I Will]

I had a Buff Orphington who was so sloppy in her mothering that she cannibalized one chick and trampled another to death in the nest. She didn't take good care of the two survivors in the end either. I was so disgusted with her behavior that I never let her try it again. Some hens just don't make good mothers, even when they are a "sitting" breed.

 

[Katrina89]

I had a Buff Orphington who was so sloppy in her mothering that she cannibalized one chick and trampled another to death in the nest. She didn't take good care of the two survivors in the end either. I was so disgusted with her behavior that I never let her try it again. Some hens just don't make good mothers, even when they are a "sitting" breed.

Oh, my! Do you separate her from the other hens? If she does that to her own chicks, does she try it to the other chicks that have hatched?

 

[Then I Will]

Hi Katrina89,

She was completely separated from the other hens. I had her in our house patio *door open during the day for her access to the outside world* in a covered tub turned on its side. She couldn't have had a more ideal situation. I believe she had some health problems to start because she refused to get off and eat and dust bathe and take care of herself even when I forced her up once every two to three days. She ate the shell off the one chick and... some issues like that. The fact she didn't bond with or mother the ones that hatched but continued to be broody told me that she hadn't been sitting to hatch in the first place. But sat just to sat.
I tried to have another hen take them under her wing and she did a little but pecked them some (can't love another kids quite like your own, ya know?) Fortunately, the chicks managed to survive and grew up running around with the big flock without a problem. My rooster made sure the hens left them alone until they were old enough to fend for themselves.
Much as people may want to disagree with me, the rooster does look out for his own and always made sure the mother hen and hers were left in peace. I even have a video of daddy scratching up treats for his little ones and calling them over for the tasty morsels. So sweet... *misty eyes*

 

[Katrina89]

Hi Katrina89,

She was completely separated from the other hens. I had her in our house patio *door open during the day for her access to the outside world* in a covered tub turned on its side. She couldn't have had a more ideal situation. I believe she had some health problems to start because she refused to get off and eat and dust bathe and take care of herself even when I forced her up once every two to three days. She ate the shell off the one chick and... some issues like that. The fact she didn't bond with or mother the ones that hatched but continued to be broody told me that she hadn't been sitting to hatch in the first place. But sat just to sat.
I tried to have another hen take them under her wing and she did a little but pecked them some (can't love another kids quite like your own, ya know?) Fortunately, the chicks managed to survive and grew up running around with the big flock without a problem. My rooster made sure the hens left them alone until they were old enough to fend for themselves.
Much as people may want to disagree with me, the rooster does look out for his own and always made sure the mother hen and hers were left in peace. I even have a video of daddy scratching up treats for his little ones and calling them over for the tasty morsels. So sweet... *misty eyes*

Aw! Such a good rooster! I hope I'm able to have roosters where I am (neighbor-wise)... because I definitely would want a rooster like that. Hmm, I don't know what else to say about the hen... As much as I hate to say it, and as hard it is to deal with, it might be her time to be dinner. Or don't leave eggs under her for her to hatch? She's at least good for eatable eggs, right? I'm sorry you're having this trouble...

 

[Then I Will]

I didn't intend to hijack the post. My experience ramble was to help the OP. Hopefully, the OP will find my experience useful if she makes the decision to not let her girl brood again.

 

[strangeanimal]

hi everyone , I'm having some bad news here in fact , also the reason why I did not have time to get on BYC ... I have tried to get the chicks inside , but probably you already guess that a free ranged hen with babies is not so easy to find after she realises her ' spot ' has been found . She went ' missing ' with her chicks and we now noticed her , again willing to hatch , in the trees first and now sitting on a pile of eggs , the eggs get constantly removed and the nest gets ' messed up ' so she wouldnt try to sit there anymore since I noticed that even without eggs she just stayed to sit ! all of her chicks are gone , so the guess is that they are dead . She is about 3 years old and has done a good hatch and even a good care about a year ago but it was the same old , people in the area made sure the chicks could find food as mother hen was constantly abscent , that is how from 10 chicks back then finally 2 survived an are now a part of the large flock , I feel so annoyed and sad about this because I never wanted them to hatch on eggs anyway but she always finds eggs no matter what . She is not sitting on her own eggs , she sits on others eggs and its often hard to find the eggs ( even the chickens in fact ) because they are free ranged and have more hidingspots than I could think about ! Now again today I was certain that no eggs could be sat on , but ofcourse if it is a large group laying eggs , you have to keep watching that the new eggs do not end up with her , so that is my big concern here because she will always be able to sit on eggs , she moves around and sits on any pile of eggs she can find , wether we talk about one egg or a pile , she sits on it but she is not fit as a mother hen at all . I have now asked the people in the area if they are interested in some fresh eggs to just go collect them as much as they like but they mention the same thing she gets angry when you try to take eggs close to her and they're afraid of her , now i checked out how angry she gets and I must admit she pecks very hard yes ! But still , I do not want to have dead chicks constantly so I went to take all her eggs away with some big gloves , she even pecked a whole in one of the gloves so you can imagine how serious she is about hatching I assume . now I have tried to catch her as she is anyway on the ground these days in search of eggs or even sitting on them but she is too fast , now it is night and I'm gonna give this a second try to go and catch her , hopefully without her having screaming the entire area together ! Some more recent renters of a house there are far from happy with the chickens running around freely so it will have to be with a blanket to wrap her in and hoping she will be a little more calm that way but I can already guess the squeeking noises the people there will have to endure for about half an hour ( area is large and finding the way in darkness takes about half an hour to my place back , so while she is in that blanket I guess you can still hear her screams ) I feel sorry for her but she is gonna go to the broodycage as she really has to be broken , this is going on already since the start of april and she hatched out around 3 or even 4 batches , with no luck , so therefor I think I'm now gonna do what is best for both her and any chicks coming from her hatching , altough I admit my heart will break by this as she is used to live free first of all and secondly pffff the girl is a mama and i can imagine all mothers will be able to relate to her feelings right ? probably she is on a new batch because her chicks died , sad for her mostly but this is not going well .
Sneaking out here in the middle of the night while it s still dark as it soon will be already ligt outside I think this is the best time and best solution .
I first like to say thanks to all of you for the effords you did here and also I'm sorry for the ones having similar issues here !
Kind regards , another momma hen ;-)