I need help RIGHT NOW! Yellow jackets are eating my chicks alive!

[LaynaDon95]

My sister just came running in holding my favorite chick (hatched today by my bantam hen) with half of his face missing and the back of his neck horrible bloody! She said yellow jackets were eating him!! He couldn't breathe, so I had my dad kill him. One of her other chicks is missing half of his face as well, but seems to be okay, or as okay as you can be with only half a face, I brought them all inside. The second chick is starting to have a reaction! What can I do?? Please help me!

 

[Eggcessive]

I'm not sure there is much to do for your second chick other than put it out of it's misery. Yellow jacket venom is really painful, and many stings can cause an anaphalactic shock and death. My husband got stung by 50 of them while riding a tractor, and he had to have treatment in the ER. Put the chicks up, and tomorrow walk your yard or pasture to look for signs of their nests in the ground. One day you may not see any holes, and the next day there may be a crater 6 inches wide down in the ground. The only 2 ways I know to kill them is with wasp and hornet spray or fill the hole with diesel fuel and light it (not exactly EPA recommended.) They will come after you and chase you down for a block, so be careful. This time of year through September you need to be ware of these holes and take care of them if you have animals or people around them.

 

[3littlechickies]

Oh My Gosh!!

I am so sorry!! I don't know what to do

but I hope that all your chicks are going to be ok!

 

[settingdusk]

Sugar water or soda in the bottom of a 2 liter. Just need a little. Then put a little funnel at top and boom, you got yourself a trap. You can also cut the top of the two liter off and flip it upside down to create the trap and duct tape it. Yellow jackets can't resist sugary drinks and will go in and drown.

 

[settingdusk]

Oh yeah I almost forgot. This may shock you but WD-40 the lubricant is deadly to wasp and hornets. Just spray them and they die.

 

[annewandering]

Are you sure that the chickens werent injured by a predator then the yellow jackets were attracted to the scent of sweet moist blood?

 

[settingdusk]

Maybe the hen rejected them and pecked their heads to death then the yellow jackets finished them off.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I'm just going to clean his face and see how he does. He's breathing okay right now. I may give his a teensy eensy weensy bit of benedryl. I'm so sad for my hen. She has been sitting for way longer than 21 days and finally hatched something just to watch wasps eat them! She's still freaking out. I was so proud of her for killing those yellow jackets to protect her babies, though. I have a chick in the incubator I'm going to give to her to replace the one she lost.

We're going to have to do something about the yellow jackets for sue, though before they start going after the rest of the flock. Poor things,

 

[LaynaDon95]

Are you sure that the chickens werent injured by a predator then the yellow jackets were attracted to the scent of sweet moist blood?

Maybe the hen rejected them and pecked their heads to death then the yellow jackets finished them off.

No, they were inside a chicken tractor. I watched the wasps fly in and try to land on the baby's face, and Mama grabbed it and ate it. She was trying to get the babies under her to hide them, but they were panicking and in pain and not listening. I've seen yellow jackets eat chicken before while we were butchering some roosters. But this? This is a first.

 

[KodiPie]

I am so sorry this happened. What a nightmare!
I just cannot understand what made yellow jackets go after the babies.
What a wonderful idea about giving your hen the baby chick.
Best of luck with your little survivor! Kodi