Buttercup - an obit for a chick

[Katoo1]

When we first got these chicks, one was way smaller than the others and seemed very weak. I fed her some sugar water by dropper for the first two days and she perked up and seemed fine. She ate and drank and ran around in the breeder. But she didn't really hang out with the other three, often hiding behind the stuffed animal they all slept on. She grew and feathered and again seemed fine. As the rest lost their fluff, we noticed she had full feathers, with fluff still sticking out and that, although she was growing, she was still smaller than the rest. She was very affectionate to me and John and would let us pet her and hold her (the rest act like we are serial killers). At about 3 weeks, we noticed that her lower beak was tiny and gnarly and deformed. We were concerned, but she was eating and drinking and pecking and perching and digging holes in the ground with the rest of them. Then as the rest grew in leaps and bounds, we started realizing how truly deformed she was. She had a shortened neck and a very rounded back. Her shape was sort of like a kiwi bird. She started sticking her head under another chicken's wings to sleep when they were all perching. Astonishingly, the others would let her do that. Last night, when we were putting the girls into the coop, we noticed she seemed really weak. This morning, we found her dead.

I'm thinking she really tried, but as her deformities became more and more obvious, they must have also become more damaging. She never cried like she was in pain, and she always ate and drank. I like to think that she had a pretty good 3 1/2 week run. Still, I feel kind of bad for reviving her when she was just a day-old chick. Maybe if they just can't make it as a chick, it's best to let nature take its course.

But Buttercup was a good little chicken.

 

[SeaisforChicken]

I think it's very sweet that you gave her a love-filled life and that the other chickens took her under their wing. I'm sure she held a lot of love for you in her chicken heart. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm glad that she went out as a happy chicken.

 

[iluvsedward]

Quote:
I had a chicken like that, she was fine as a chick, then she developed a crooked beak, and then she got blind in one eye, I named her Crooked Star, recently though, she didn't come back to the hutch at night and we never found her, I was heart broken, I could always recognize her voice out of all the others, she was always the nicest, and she would come running up to me when I would let them out. I think she got sick somewhere and a fox ate her.

 

[SilverPhoenix]

You did the best you could for her, and gave her a much-loved life while it lasted. It's obvious that you really cared about her and tried hard to give her a chance. Rest in peace, little Buttercup.

 

[MydearWatson]

Awww. Sounds like you did so well by her and her time with you was good. I'd love to see a pic of the sweet girl.

 

[Wildflower_VA]

You are most likely correct about letting nature take its course with the weak chicks when they are first hatched, but I don't think anyone that hangs out on this forum would be able to just watch (or help) them die unless they were in pain. Raising them by hand is more personal than letting the broody hen do her thing out on the farm. A mature broody hen probably would have instinctively known that chick needed culled. To these tiny chicks in a brooder, we are their parent and they look to us to take as good of care of them as we are able. We don't have the natural instincts, but we do the best we can. I think you gave your little Buttercup the best short life she could have. I'm sorry for your pain at her loss.

 

[Katoo1]

Thank you for all of your kind replies. I don't have any pictures of lil Buttercup after she got older than 2 weeks, (just haven't taken any since the chicks went outside). She's about two weeks old here. Now I realize I can see a bit of her beak deformity, but I was too new to chickens to notice anything wrong. She really was the sweetest of the bunch.