Baby with broken leg

[cundare]

In happier news, our little guy seems to be regaining more use of his leg. He started moving his toes for the first time yesterday. We're hopeful that he'll eventually make a full recovery.

To our surprise, the other little bird (the one that was attacked on Saturday) is also back, after a two-day absence. I figured he was dead, since he couldn't keep up with his mama.

That hen, btw, has started escaping our property and going walkabout lately very early in the morning. (I think the alpha hen is chasing her out before we get up. Gotta figure out a solution.)

Two days ago, she flew back into the yard in a panic, with only 1 of her 5 remaining chicks. Apparently, she wandered into a neighbor's yard, where their pit bull ate one chick (ate it!) and scattered the rest. Eventually, all the survivors responded to her calls and she had all four in the yard. Then yesterday, the chick that had been injured last weekend showed up. He's looking pretty good, almost 100%. I guess he lucked out -- couldn't keep up with her and was hiding someplace else in the neighborhood when the hen was attacked. He looks like he can now keep up her, and she's accepted him back into her little flock. So she now has five healthy chicks.

What drama! I should be keeping notes.

 

[SmiYa0126]

Argh! I hope you can help her

 

[cundare]

...and last night, she had only four chicks. Didn't see anything laying around in the yard, so apparently, she had another close encounter with a predator.

 

[WoDia]

If there’s any way to catch the mama and the chicks, you should consider keeping them. It’s really sad what they’re going through… and, sad that you have to watch them wander, at risk of predation. They probably feel safer in your yard. I hope there’s a happy ending for mama and chicks.

 

[cundare]

@SmiYa0126 & everyone else

Final (hopefully!) resolution: good news, bad news, and more good news.

i) Both the baby birds seem to have fully recovered. They're walking normally and exhibiting typical chicken behavior. We're still stuck with raising this baby bird in the house, which is far from ideal, but we're working on a solution that entails keeping him in a protective cage outside with the rest of the birds during the day and bringing him in at night to have dinner, play with the humans a bit, and sleep in his private box.

ii) I mentioned that the second injured bird -- one of four older chicks that hang together as a family group -- was back on his feet, but two days ago, one of his little brothers was injured. He found a good place to hide, but could walk on only one foot. We boarded up his hidey hole to give him additional security and protection from the elements, and made sure he had water & his favorite foods. His siblings were just as concerned concerned and kept close to him. At one point, I found the four of them huddled togethr into a little ball sitting on the ground. I'm guessing he strayed too close to one of the other two mama hens, or perhaps stole some food from a feisty cockerel we have who needs to be taught that attacking babies is not acceptable. We're working on that.

iii) As of this morning, this third injured bird seems to have also made a remarkable recovery. He's back free-ranging with the other three & seems to be walking mostly OK. All four may have learned their lesson, and they're mostly staying in a large (10x15') protective-custody cage in which we keep our alpha rooster, who had been subject to abduction attempts by the local cockfighter kids. The cage has a Brinks padlock & adult birds can't get in through the chain link, so it's the safest option here for young motherless birds.


So overall, everybody's safe and sound, as of this morning. No idea what tomorrow will bring, but I guess that's good enough for now. Gotta run -- baby Cassidy is chirping his head off...

 

[WoDia]

@SmiYa0126 & everyone else

Final (hopefully!) resolution: good news, bad news, and more good news.

i) Both the baby birds seem to have fully recovered. They're walking normally and exhibiting typical chicken behavior. We're still stuck with raising this baby bird in the house, which is far from ideal, but we're working on a solution that entails keeping him in a protective cage outside with the rest of the birds during the day and bringing him in at night to have dinner, play with the humans a bit, and sleep in his private box.

ii) I mentioned that the second injured bird -- one of four older chicks that hang together as a family group -- was back on his feet, but two days ago, one of his little brothers was injured. He found a good place to hide, but could walk on only one foot. We boarded up his hidey hole to give him additional security and protection from the elements, and made sure he had water & his favorite foods. His siblings were just as concerned concerned and kept close to him. At one point, I found the four of them huddled togethr into a little ball sitting on the ground. I'm guessing he strayed too close to one of the other two mama hens, or perhaps stole some food from a feisty cockerel we have who needs to be taught that attacking babies is not acceptable. We're working on that.

iii) As of this morning, this third injured bird seems to have also made a remarkable recovery. He's back free-ranging with the other three & seems to be walking mostly OK. All four may have learned their lesson, and they're mostly staying in a large (10x15') protective-custody cage in which we keep our alpha rooster, who had been subject to abduction attempts by the local cockfighter kids. The cage has a Brinks padlock & adult birds can't get in through the chain link, so it's the safest option here for young motherless birds.


So overall, everybody's safe and sound, as of this morning. No idea what tomorrow will bring, but I guess that's good enough for now. Gotta run -- baby Cassidy is chirping his head off...

Have you adopted all of the chicks? I hope that’s what you’re indicating. You’ve been so caring with them… they are very fortunate to have found their way to you.

 

[cundare]

We let them free-range in the yard. Our feeling is that the mother hens know so much more than we possibly could about how to give them a natural upbringing & teach them how to be good chickens! The problem is that the mothers tend to abandon the babies at a young age, so when that happens, we closely monitor them in the yard to make sure they find a safe place to sleep (usually in a big tree or in a dense bush where they can't easily be seen) and make sure they get their portions of the best food.

That hasn't prevented these babies from being attacked this month. Two are dead and there were three other injuries (all of which are now recovered). I've been blaming one aggressive mother hen or one of our piss-and-vinegar cockerels. If we catch them in the act, there will be some feedback given. But the other day, we saw some bulbuls dive-bomb one of our adult birds that got too close to our mango tree. In the past, they've been aggressive enough to terrify all our roosters when they had a nest nearby. So maybe they're the culprits. This morning, I awoke to predator calls, and two of our largest birds were hiding in fear. But we didnt' see what was triggering the panic.

So for now, we're keeping vigilant. The chicks are our highest priority, and our main rooster has taken up the job of watching over them when he can. But he can't be with them every second of the day.

Exhausting! And now Cassidy is screaming for attention in the dining room, where we have him set up. Gotta run to go do chicken duty...