Baby chick

[oesdog]

I am kind of new to forums and stuff and chickens so please be patient as I try to understand how to work this!
I have a baby chcik Omelette who is very weak. We had to help him out of his shell and he took about 12 hrs to start moving. Now he is lively and healthy and plays with our other chick blue in the brood box. However despite being ok for most of the day he would suddenly just fall asleep werever he is including face first into food or whatever else is infront of him. We have had to pick food and hay and stuff out of his face! He seems to have a gooy eye on one side where the hay got stuck. Any ideas? Don;t want to lose him after all this. Blue and Omelette are the only surviving chicks from the incubator and both had to be helped out of their shells all the other chicks died in their shells and didn;t even pip. These are our first chicks. We have 4 outside doing fine with a hen!

 

[chick4chicks]

and

Congrats on the new chicks. I would keep an eye on them, check for pasty butt and you can add a little sugar to their water or get poly vi sol without iron and add to their water. Chicks do have a habit of falling asleep anytime anywhere. They do fall on their faces sometimes. Keep an eye on it's eye. Hopefully all goes well with that. Chickens are great. Enjoy.

 

[oesdog]

Thanks I am kind of worried about the wee fellows eye but know it can;t be anything else that having been irritated by the hay he got stuck in it. As his other eye and beak are fine. Blue is also fine. It was really hard going and we didn;t know what to do getting them out of their shells but glad now we did when we found all others dead.

 

[casumm]

Does he rest more the Blue or just crash where he is when it's time to sleep? I'm no expert. I have four 4-day-olds and one in particular seems to rest more than the others. I figure since she is eating, drinking, playing and growing, perhaps she just needs more sleep.

Definitely watch the eye but it sounds like you are doing all you can! Congrats on your first two little incubator babies.

-chris

 

[oesdog]

Thanks I am happy we got two alive. I think this one is weaker than the other and deffinately sleeps more.
But he/she was very weak when we opened the shell for it. Omelette took 12 hrs to move and we thought it wouldn;t make it but now does run about and certainly eats more than Blue. Blue didn;t even know what his mouth was for, for a good 3 days and we worried. Our first year and totally glad we got some live chicks!

 

[gryeyes]

Newly hatched chicks actually don't *need* to eat anything for a day or two; they're still absorbing the egg yolk! That's why it's such a big business shipping day old chicks - they can survive 3 days on that yolk that was in the egg with them.

They DO need to drink, though.

And, as another poster has relayed, they do fall over asleep so easily. Sometimes whilst eating, or drinking! Just BOOM! asleep.

 

[oesdog]

Thanks for that - I was a wee bit worried my chick just fell face first into anything and everything!
Even the water bowl and then would wake with a jolt! I thought it was because he was sick and weak and had to be helped hatch.
Our other chicks don;t actually do that. We are worried about his little eye at the moment any ideas? It is watering after he got hay stuck in it! He also regularly has food stuck to it and the more it runs the more this happens. His other eye is fine.