BAD news, need advice ;( LIFE AT STAKE!!

[Amethyste]

lol

our chicks are 13 weeks old today and Momma Esther AND Mercedes still act like they are chicks...

I think its "empty nest syndrome" with our 2 girls..... they are trying to keep them chicks as long as they are willing to BE chicks lol

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Each individual hen seems to have her own timetable for when it's appropriate to leave her chicks. Some of my Mama hens leave their chicks as early as 4 weeks, they just hop the fence and go back to the laying flock. Others stay longer, 6-9 weeks seems to be the average. There are a rare few who hang around with their chicks until they're all laying together.

What's funny is that most of my broodies are bantams and I usually put standard-sized eggs under them to hatch. So you'll see a tiny little hen with these big hulking half-grown chicks yeeping after her, trying to crowd under her wings. Once I gave a bantam hen some duck eggs to hatch, and her ducklings quickly grew to be twice her size.

I'm sorry you lost the one chick to your dog but glad the other one survived. Now you know how careful you need to be to keep your chickens apart from your dog. I don't think your birds will ever outgrow their vulnerability so you'll have to keep them in secure enclosures.

In a few weeks you may be able to tell if your chick is a roo or a hen. Many roo chicks start to get some reddish color in their combs, and start to sprout little wattles as early as 4 weeks. What will you do if your chick is a roo?

 

[newchickmom09]

If your chick is getting her/his feathers in then I would guess about a week old or a little over. I don't think chickens really are able to protect themselves from a dog. Only a very protective roo will probably try to get a dog away.

 

[Hopefully]

We decided to keep Miracle, whether she's a roo or not

I was hoping she was a hen, but if he/she is a roo, maybe *he can teach my dog a little lesson for killing his sibling! I wish we'd kept our rooster, because I know he could have protected both chicks really well, he would chase my dog away when she came close to the hens before (he'd get protective of them, which is also why we got rid of him since we could never pet the hens without getting attacked). Now I wish we didn't!

I know once Miracle reaches a good size, I'll be able to introduce my dog to her properly... hopefully. Because last March, we got 6 baby chicks and introduced them to my dog at 2 weeks old. She didn't harm them, she actually mothered them. So why this happened, I don't know. I'm waiting until Miracle is big and full feathered though, and of course, able to fly. My dog just wanted to play and was too rough. She won't be able to "play" with Miracle if Miracle doesn't want her too. If my dog annoyed my other hens, they simply fly off, no need for a fence when they can get away. My dog isn't interested in eating them, she's just too energetic! lol

So I'm thinking Miracle is maybe a week and a half years old. she loves earth worms! My hen digs them up for her all the time. Earth worms are OK, I'm assuming.
She's growing too fast! Already a bit bigger with more feathers! WAH!

Pretty soon her wings will be fully covered.

Too fast! haha but so cool to see her growing

Thanks everyone!

 

[Opa]

I always keeps a product called Nurtri Drench on hand. Anytime I have a bird that is stress for any reason I administer a couple of drops into its lower bill and then add some to their water. It helps them through the stress by supplying sugars & minerals.

 

[poultryhaven]

You know what we need........................................

PICS!!!!!

 

[lilcrow]

Opa,
May I ask where you get the Nutri Drench and how much you put in how much water? Please forgive my ignorance. I've not heard of this.

 

[walkswithdog]

Nutri-drench is good stuff. I used to always have it on hand... Need more.

You can use molasses and poly-vi-sol to help distressed shocky chicks.

The sugar helps, molasses has minerals and poly-vi-sol has a lot of vitamins and it kick starts them.

Some people have agave syrup on hand, it's a low glycemic source of sugars and good for immediate rescue of chicks if you have it.

Higher glycemic products, Karo light and sugar water, also help but are lower in nutritive value and will cause glycemic crashes if the chick does not then begin to eat.

Constant peeping is a sign of distress. Something is not right, the chick is shutting down. Supplementation can get the chick over the rough spot, and a few days of a couple/few drops of poly-vi-sol seems to help them bounce in the long run. (Or nutri-drench).

And if one is failing I'll put electrolytes in the water for all of them. I keep a powdered form here always for dogs/goats/chickens the need comes up often enough to justify it.

I am so glad the one baby made it. Mother chickens cannot rewarm a chick fast enough to save it from shock. You did the right thing. You can also use a blow dryer on low to rewarm them, just move it back and forth a bit, so it doesn't create a hot spot and it can do the job quite quickly.

 

[lilcrow]

Quote:
Hummm....look familiar Hopefully?