Update PG3, PG4 with photos!
Got a message while at work today that my third chick had hatched. YAY I thought. Until two hours later when I got a message that mumma hen had decided it was chick moving time! The other chicks were born yesterday and the day before, so they'd be ok, but little no.3?
I got home and ran up to meet chick 3. I heard peeping, looked in, two little chicks running around with mum. One lying motionless in the corner. I pick him up, he was limp and cold. I stared at it, stroked it, then noticed it's eyes were shut. Every dead thing I've ever seen has half open eyes. So I gently tried to open its eye and it resisted! moved its head ever so slightly and squinted!!!
I shoved it in my bra, rushed inside and got out a wheat pack, heated it in the microwave and started warming it up!
It was motionless for ages, then it wiggled its head! Then when I took away the heat pack to re-heat it, it PEEPED! a weak peep but a peep none the less!
Since then (about 3hrs) he's been getting better and better, I gave him a little honey water and now he's up and moving and refuses to stay on my lap in his beanie/heat pack nest! he keeps climbing up and snuggling into my neck! He's still a little wobbly though, like any less than a day old chick would be!!
SUCH a lucky little bugger that I got home when I did or I'm pretty certain he's be dead!
I'm planning on keeping him with me this evening to make sure he stays warm and strong, then slipping him under mum again tonight.
Got a message while at work today that my third chick had hatched. YAY I thought. Until two hours later when I got a message that mumma hen had decided it was chick moving time! The other chicks were born yesterday and the day before, so they'd be ok, but little no.3?
I got home and ran up to meet chick 3. I heard peeping, looked in, two little chicks running around with mum. One lying motionless in the corner. I pick him up, he was limp and cold. I stared at it, stroked it, then noticed it's eyes were shut. Every dead thing I've ever seen has half open eyes. So I gently tried to open its eye and it resisted! moved its head ever so slightly and squinted!!!
I shoved it in my bra, rushed inside and got out a wheat pack, heated it in the microwave and started warming it up!
It was motionless for ages, then it wiggled its head! Then when I took away the heat pack to re-heat it, it PEEPED! a weak peep but a peep none the less!
Since then (about 3hrs) he's been getting better and better, I gave him a little honey water and now he's up and moving and refuses to stay on my lap in his beanie/heat pack nest! he keeps climbing up and snuggling into my neck! He's still a little wobbly though, like any less than a day old chick would be!!
SUCH a lucky little bugger that I got home when I did or I'm pretty certain he's be dead!
I'm planning on keeping him with me this evening to make sure he stays warm and strong, then slipping him under mum again tonight.
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