lynnmhari
Chirping
- Sep 2, 2020
- 57
- 205
- 86
A hen abandoned the nest and left behind one egg ,when I went to remove it I noticed it had a slight chip so I held it and noticed it started peeping,so we brought it inside and took turns holding it until it hatched ,it took around 7 hours.We held it in our hands first then in a napkin once it started chipping round so we would restrict it movements and kept a bit of the napkin moist I wasnt sure if it needed more humidity than just our hands gave.We had another rescue chick so we kept that near the egg too because our chicks peeping seemed to encourage the other to peck at the shell .(We cant use either an incubator or brooder as we have a generator for our electricity) .I put the chick under the duvet with me and the other chick so it was dark then leaned the damp new hatched chick next to our older one so it had warmth to dry out .We kept this and another rejected chick warm the first night by using a salad drawer and I slept with it next to me in bed and under the covers to get a decent temperature and for company for the chick ,now they sleep in a cat carrier together .During the day we keep them warm by letting them next to our skin usually on our shoulder but sometimes arm ,after a few days they spent a lot of time away from us and after a couple of weeks we let them outside for some of the time in a little rabbit run because theres two of them so they can snuggle in their room part if they want so now its not a time consuming ,but it is possible to raise chicks without a brooder and neither chick the mums rejected has anything wrong with it ,in fact the older chick is bigger than most of the chicks still with their mum ,but both hatched two days after the first chicks hatched ,,the broodys had spent their first couple of days in the coop with other hens and been pinching their eggs I think .We have bought more broody hutches now so we can transfer them across the first day they start sitting
