Suzi hatched a peeper tonight! - Update - another peeper hatched. :-)

Suzi hatched a peeper! It's the most beautiful little peeper! And another egg looks like it's breaking out.

We moved her to a dog crate because the nest she's been sitting in is so small, and too high off the ground in case a peeper falls out, and that appears to have worked. She's tending to them there.




Not too sure the crate is the best thing, as the peepers may be able to get out, but hopefully it will work for tonight.. I thought - too late, that it would be better to just build her a little corral with hay bales. I didn't want to upset her any more tonight. Will rig up a better nursery tomorrow.

This morning I set up a little nursery area for her, walled it off with hay bales for a little privacy until she wants to rejoin the flock.



Left her in the crate because she seems comfortable in there, but blocked off three sides and left the door open...



Still just the one peeper and two eggs... will give her another couple of days before worrying about the other eggs.

Congrats on your little fuzzy! Looks like she has quite a comfy nursery set up there.

(note... in writing this, I decided to call the chick a "he"... because I've become a little suspicious, looking at him closely like I just did... that he he was a "he", with that eye liner and the chipmunk markings. He'd be an EE/BO cross. I read here on another thread that those markings often indicate it's a boy.... am I right?)


I'm afraid we lost the little peeper.

When I went out this morning to feed, I fed his momma a hot mash of her food and felt around, and he was not under there. I picked her up and looked, and there were the two eggs, but no peeper. It took me quite a long time to even find him, in all the hay I had in there. He was cold though. I don't know if he died and mom pushed him out, or if he got lost and she couldn't/didn't get him back under her. It's so cold out.

Here's the whole story... sad, but surprisingly comical in parts... I typed all this out on facebook, copying it here.

For those who don't know, my chicken coop is in the hay room, inside of our larger five stall barn. Our barn houses, at the moment, two horses, 5 goats, and a pot bellied pig... Plus our six hens and one rooster.


I fed the horses and the goats inside, a favor because it was so cold this morning (25 degrees outside, a little over freezing inside, with all the body heat in there, none of the water buckets had ice in them). I let the chickens out of the coop, and opened the barn door so they could go out if they want. So... as I said above, I went in and made Momma a hot mash with her food, thought that would be appreciated. It was, she started eating it hungrily when I held it in front of her. But I couldn't hear any peeping sounds. I felt around, nothing... lifted her up... nothing. I pick her up and set her up on a hay bale, and give her the food to keep her busy. I put the eggs in my pockets so they wouldn't get cold, and I start tearing apart the nest to find the peeper.

I find the peeper, and take him to the heater in the tack room, try to rub him for several minutes... feel for any signs up life... I can't tell. He didn't seem completely limp. I rubbed him and tried to warm him. Couldn't tell if he could still be revived or not. But I could tell that out in the barn, chaos had erupted. The goats had gotten into the hay room with the chickens, were eating their food, and the chickens were all freaking out... Momma was in a panic, her nest all destroyed still... the others were all cackling and carrying on... I have the eggs in my pocket. I set the peeper down in some towels in front of the heater where it was warm and went back out there.

I kicked all the goats out of the hay room, only the first of several times because they kept coming back in and slipping past me as I made trips back and forth. The chickens are all freaking, so I went into the little nursery area and hurriedly tried to put the nest back together. Momma is on top of the hay bales in chicken hysterics. As I'm bending down trying to get the nursery nest put back together, the rooster, coming to the aid of all these hens in distress, leaps on my head! I try to bat him away and he keeps coming at me. I finally manage to launch him across the room, which is again full of goats. I put the eggs in the nest, scooped up momma, plopped her down in there and said "there!" Now chill out! I have other problems!" She did.

I ignored the goats and the rooster on my way out of there and went back in to check on the peeper. I still couldn't tell if he was really dead or not. I didn't want to give up too soon... so I kept rubbing and trying to warm him. I really tried for a long time, hoping the story I was going to tell later would have a happy ending.




I set him in a nest of towels in front of the heater and went back out to get the goats out. No longer wanting to do them any favors, I kicked them outside, along with the *&&$# rooster. Kicked the pig out, who himself had to take a couple detours before going out like he's supposed to. Didn't want to go! I seriously wanted to kill every animal on the place except that little chick, but alas... it was not to be. He's gone. I kicked the horses out too, they'd long finished their breakfast. The suns up now and it's warming up quickly outside, looking kindof cheerful out, but I feel more than a little frazzled.

The rooster attack is the part that made the whole thing a comedy. I mean, I don't care who you are, that would have made a funny video.

Questions to ponder.... I know not all chicks live anyway... did it die, and she pushed it out? or did she just not keep it under her, and it got cold? I think probably the latter. And that makes me feel bad, because if we had done things differently, it might not have been such a tragedy... Should I have given her a heat lamp, should I have brought them in the house? Lots of what ifs.

Should we still let momma continue and hatch and raise the other two eggs or at this point is it kinder to just pull them and let/make her get over it so she can eat, she's lost a lot of energy and weight doing this. I would like to candle the eggs and see if we can tell, but we haven't had great success in candling them, and I think that can wait till hubby's around to help tomorrow. It takes more hands to to it and take pictures, than I have.

I wish I knew for sure what to do. It's just really such a bad time of year for her to be trying to hatch eggs... and I'm frankly a little weary of the whole thing right now.

I am so sorry the little peeper didn't make it. Maybe it had something wrong with it that kept it from thriving. Mama should have been able to keep it plenty warm unless it just didn't stay under her. Normally, they will hardly go 6" from mama for the first couple days, especially when it is cold. A couple of times I've had incubator/brooder chicks who have hatched easily and seemed lively and energetic. The next morning they were lying dead in the brooder. There was just something wrong inside of them that wasn't apparent from just looking at them. I'm inclined to think that may be more likely in this case as well. The chick doesn't look injured in any way, and the way you've described the hen, she sounds like a good mama. I'd say just keep observing how she interacts with any more chicks she may hatch just to be safe though.

As far as sexing EEs, I have completely given up on sexing my EEs and EE crosses. They are all over the place with coloring and feathering speed.

Thanks

It's a hard world for the little things...

We moved her for the last couple days, crate and all, to our tack room where I could safely give her a little bit of heat, there's a little heater in there. It's just been so cold out low 20s), that the margin for any kind of error was zero if any more hatched and got separated at all. Temps in the tack room are much more comfortable.

Momma seems content in the tack room! And she has been eating some when I make her hot mashes and set it next to her in a little bowl so that's made me worry less about her. At least she's getting a little food and some water that way.

The remaining two eggs are mysteries on their exact date, because they appeared later. They could hatch any time between now and the 20th. I'll be relieved when this whole ordeal is over.

There is a little peeper under her this morning, we heard it, but haven't seen it yet. Made momma a little warm mash in a bowl, but otherwise leaving her be for now.

Hoping for the best!

Just sayin said:

We moved her for the last couple days, crate and all, to our tack room where I could safely give her a little bit of heat, there's a little heater in there. It's just been so cold out low 20s), that the margin for any kind of error was zero if any more hatched and got separated at all. Temps in the tack room are much more comfortable.

Momma seems content in the tack room! And she has been eating some when I make her hot mashes and set it next to her in a little bowl so that's made me worry less about her. At least she's getting a little food and some water that way.

The remaining two eggs are mysteries on their exact date, because they appeared later. They could hatch any time between now and the 20th. I'll be relieved when this whole ordeal is over.

Click to expand...

Just sayin said:

There is a little peeper under her this morning, we heard it, but haven't seen it yet. Made momma a little warm mash in a bowl, but otherwise leaving her be for now.

Hoping for the best!

Click to expand...

That is great! I hope this one goes very much better than before. I always make special treats for my broodies as well. I don't like them losing weight so much while they set. So once hatch day gets closer and they aren't wanting to leave the nest much at all I make sure and give them food and water where they can eat and drink their fill a couple times a day. I don't worry about it quite as much with my cooperative broodies, because they trade off the eggs and take turns going out.