strangeanimal
Songster
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 !
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 !