- Apr 16, 2015
- 16
- 3
- 67
I will try to keep this short but bear with me...
We have had a hen sitting for couple weeks now. I came home yesterday and my wife and daughter were excited and anxious as they had discovered 2 of the 6 eggs had hatched. When I inspected things there was one very weak chick in the nesting box and the body of another chick that had obviously expired at least a day or 2 earlier. We started brainstorming ways to save the one living chick.
Option 1: We have 10 day old chicks inside in a brooder already. We could put this chick in with those and hope for the best. We only have one heat source so setting up a separate brooder was not an option
Option 2: Do nothing. My concern with doing nothing was the chick was born in a nesting box that is 3 feet off the ground. How would this chick a) get out of the box to the ground. b) get food and water. c) how well would the chick integrate with the other chickens as well as roosting issues
Option 3: separate the hen and the chick in a separate coop that we have setup for integrating new chickens.
we chose option 3. Took a 5 gallon bucket, screwed a board on the bottom to keep it stable, cut the top section off and filled it with an inch or 2 of cedar shavings. We then transferred the chick along with 3 of the unhatched eggs and the mother hen to the extra coop. We then stepped back and prayed for the best. Unfortunately the chick didn’t make it very long. I went back out last night and the chick was dead. It was almost buried into the shavings among the remaining eggs.
I am second guessing everything today. Should I have tried to interstate these chicks with the other slightly older chick? Should I have left everything along and let nature take its choice? Should I have removed other eggs? Maybe we did the right thing and it just didn’t go in our favor?
My biggest question/concern is that all our nesting boxes are 3 feet off the ground In the coop. We have no Feed or water in the coop. So if we wanted allow a hen to hatch chicks naturally how would this work with the higher box? I grew up on a farm and remember chickens hatching chicks in the upper lifts of our barn With no food or water anywhere around and it seems like they always survived.
I like the idea of letting nature take its course and hatching baby chicks naturally. But I can handle being awakened by my sobbing 10 year old future vet of a daughter at 4 in the morning.
Here is my setup:
We typically have 10-12 chickens. We have a Coop inside a large run. We have an extra coop and can split the run in half for separating or integrating. I have an automatic waterer with nipples in the coop. Feed is outside the coop. 8 Nesting boxes are in the coop 3-4 feet off the ground. We have 1 brooder that we use for chicks with an Ecoglow brooder. My wife (and I) are scared Of a heat lamp so that is not really an option.
Someone throw me some wisdom please?
We have had a hen sitting for couple weeks now. I came home yesterday and my wife and daughter were excited and anxious as they had discovered 2 of the 6 eggs had hatched. When I inspected things there was one very weak chick in the nesting box and the body of another chick that had obviously expired at least a day or 2 earlier. We started brainstorming ways to save the one living chick.
Option 1: We have 10 day old chicks inside in a brooder already. We could put this chick in with those and hope for the best. We only have one heat source so setting up a separate brooder was not an option
Option 2: Do nothing. My concern with doing nothing was the chick was born in a nesting box that is 3 feet off the ground. How would this chick a) get out of the box to the ground. b) get food and water. c) how well would the chick integrate with the other chickens as well as roosting issues
Option 3: separate the hen and the chick in a separate coop that we have setup for integrating new chickens.
we chose option 3. Took a 5 gallon bucket, screwed a board on the bottom to keep it stable, cut the top section off and filled it with an inch or 2 of cedar shavings. We then transferred the chick along with 3 of the unhatched eggs and the mother hen to the extra coop. We then stepped back and prayed for the best. Unfortunately the chick didn’t make it very long. I went back out last night and the chick was dead. It was almost buried into the shavings among the remaining eggs.
I am second guessing everything today. Should I have tried to interstate these chicks with the other slightly older chick? Should I have left everything along and let nature take its choice? Should I have removed other eggs? Maybe we did the right thing and it just didn’t go in our favor?
My biggest question/concern is that all our nesting boxes are 3 feet off the ground In the coop. We have no Feed or water in the coop. So if we wanted allow a hen to hatch chicks naturally how would this work with the higher box? I grew up on a farm and remember chickens hatching chicks in the upper lifts of our barn With no food or water anywhere around and it seems like they always survived.
I like the idea of letting nature take its course and hatching baby chicks naturally. But I can handle being awakened by my sobbing 10 year old future vet of a daughter at 4 in the morning.
Here is my setup:
We typically have 10-12 chickens. We have a Coop inside a large run. We have an extra coop and can split the run in half for separating or integrating. I have an automatic waterer with nipples in the coop. Feed is outside the coop. 8 Nesting boxes are in the coop 3-4 feet off the ground. We have 1 brooder that we use for chicks with an Ecoglow brooder. My wife (and I) are scared Of a heat lamp so that is not really an option.
Someone throw me some wisdom please?
