Hey All,
We're like 3 weeks in to a heat wave here, and my Moira's chicks were due to hatch tomorrow (7/29). Well we were hearing peeps Sunday (7/26) and have had 9 total hatch so far. One we found outside the nest this morning, I tucked it back in but Moira abandoned the nest with 7 of her chicks, and left the struggler and three eggs. It looks like someone's yolk sac broke when hatching because one of the unhatched eggs was covered. I brought the nest box inside, there was a dead chick buried in there that was starting to smell so I think that's why she bailed. We cleaned up the one unhatched egg and put that and the two others as well as struggler in the incubator. I'm thinking if the other eggs hatch I'll just put them in the brooder.
The struggler - I just cleaned up it's belly, it had some wood shavings and yolk crusted on it. It will wobbily stand for a few seconds and then plop back down and sleep for an hour. Chirping is minimal. My concern is that it is not opening its eyes on its own when it stands and seems very weak. Any suggestions or do I just let it be and see if it improves overnight?
Any suggestions welcome, this was Moira's second go at being broody, last year she and another hen hatched eggs at the same time and Moira took over all the parenting duties and raised all 10 chicks.
We're like 3 weeks in to a heat wave here, and my Moira's chicks were due to hatch tomorrow (7/29). Well we were hearing peeps Sunday (7/26) and have had 9 total hatch so far. One we found outside the nest this morning, I tucked it back in but Moira abandoned the nest with 7 of her chicks, and left the struggler and three eggs. It looks like someone's yolk sac broke when hatching because one of the unhatched eggs was covered. I brought the nest box inside, there was a dead chick buried in there that was starting to smell so I think that's why she bailed. We cleaned up the one unhatched egg and put that and the two others as well as struggler in the incubator. I'm thinking if the other eggs hatch I'll just put them in the brooder.
The struggler - I just cleaned up it's belly, it had some wood shavings and yolk crusted on it. It will wobbily stand for a few seconds and then plop back down and sleep for an hour. Chirping is minimal. My concern is that it is not opening its eyes on its own when it stands and seems very weak. Any suggestions or do I just let it be and see if it improves overnight?
Any suggestions welcome, this was Moira's second go at being broody, last year she and another hen hatched eggs at the same time and Moira took over all the parenting duties and raised all 10 chicks.
