Hatching with 2 broodies

[16 paws]

Thanks MistyMountain,

I think you are right about the ff.
I will check out the link, thanks for the tip.
Marie

 

[ShelbyCoral]

I also am not sure what you mean about the toes. Looks like normal 5 toed chicken feet.

I mean she has 5 toes on each foot. 10 toes total but the 5th toes were not attached and I just check her feet and the bones are not going to attach. I saw it wrong the last time I guess... They are just there! Hanging...

I also noticed that her feet are mostly silkied... but she is mostly straight feathered! Its so cool!

 

[halfbakedtulip]

@16 paws Thank you for your kind words

I am going to sound really dumb here but what are LF's? That chick is going to be a sassy pants for sure!

@ShelbyCoral What a cute chick! I am so sorry about the toe thing! Do you have a vet or an avian vet around you could call and ask what to do?

@missnu01 you are so much braver than I! Although as I say that I will be keeping track of what you said just in case!

@MistyMountain I am so sorry to hear about your girls Could she maybe have a clutch somewhere hidden? She could be off hatching and show back up! I will keep everything crossed that that is the case.



We went to the vet yesterday for the frizzles pedicure appt. (lol it kills me to say that ) They are farm vets (I got to see them do a c-section on a sheep on a picnic table once

) but they also look after my 2 shih-tzu crosses so they are multi-purpose vets lol. I had to actually google pictures of chickens with mg with bubbles on their eye as she had never seen that. She asked her assistant (who is fresh out of school) if he had ever seen anything like it and he said only once on a parrot. So she spent a good 1/2 hour looking through her "medical books" and googling. I will say this....the fact that it was so odd to her gives me hope that maybe it wasn't mg as clearly it isn't common around here. Although she did say well that is probably what it was and gave me crap for not keeping the body. She said she doesn't want to test the rest of the chickens as apparently it is really easy to get a false positive if no one is showing symptoms. So she said if anyone does to bring them in right away. She also made some comment about "well if they all end up dying then you can just start over! If you could have seen the look on her face when I said "uh no these are my babies! Farm vets are great but at the same time have a different mentality than me who is just a backyard chicken keeper.

Today is Day 18. We are down to 4 eggs. The last question marked 1 I recandled yesterday and it hadn't changed. I opened it up and I would say the chick stopped growing about a week in. So that leaves me 3 silkies and 1 either milles fleur /silkie or just straight milles fleur. The farm where I got that egg from is the same one I got Dot from. They have 4 bantam roosters (3 milles fleur D'uccles and 1 silkie) and 3 milles fleur hens. Everyone gets along and no one is separated. Which really attests to how sweet their chickens are. So it's anyones guess what that egg is!

On a weird note Voodoo and Dot were growling today. I have no idea what that is about but they were in different areas doing it. Could that be the "purring" some people talk about?

 

[16 paws]

Ok,
I just got home from work today and raced down to the coop to see if any more chicks hatched. I saw an empty shell and looked around and there was another chick.

The poor little baby looked like it had been pecked in the head in 2 spots! Does the Mom ever help it hatch or were they picking on it I wonder? It also looked very weak. I watched it for a couple of minutes and the mom stepped on it. I ran and got a little sugar water and dipped its beak in. It seemed to like that. After that I noticed it didnt have its eyes open. Is that normal? I dont know exactly when it hatched but it was dry and walking a little, just looked weak and very newly born. Mom wasnt sitting on it to keep it warm but it is also nice and warm today.
I decided to take it up to the garage and I now have it in a box with a heat light on it. I will see how it does....
Any advice will be appreciated. This is my very first hatch.
Marie

 

[missnu01]

Hmm. Doesn't sound good. By the time a chick is dry it is usually no longer wobbly and newborn acting. They are clumsy when they first hatch and are still gooey. And it shouldn't have its eyes closed unless it was sleeping. I would think you probably did the right thing although the chick might not make it. When a mother bored refuses to take care of one of her brood usually means she knows something is wrong with it. Newly hatched chicks rarely show their faces from underneath their mothers wings. Not for a few days anyway. .. so keep a close eye maybe add some poultry vitamins

 

[MistyMountain]

@MistyMountain I am so sorry to hear about your girls Could she maybe have a clutch somewhere hidden? She could be off hatching and show back up! I will keep everything crossed that that is the case.

I appreciate your thoughts, I too was holding out hope. We are putting a new roof on the barn and I could swear I heard bock bock bock noises all day Sunday. Finally figured out it was a squirrel. I really was hoping Dotty was playing a round of golf. There has been a distinct smell of death further back in the woods. Yesterday my DH took a spin on the 4 wheeler down the trail. There, not too far in, on the other side of the spring was a sad stack of white and black feathers. Tail and wing feathers. The smell is strong down there, but not sure where her final resting place is as the briars have grown up on us. We set up the trail cam. We think it is something on four legs: coyote, fox or bobcat. On high alert from here on out. The chickens are staying close in to the coop and Lucky is staying even closer to Willie Roo. I understand it all, Mother Nature tax, the risk of free ranging. My husband is pretty torn up about it. I love that guy, he is tough but those little soft sides of him just melt my heart.

In other news, I actually have a broody sort of question… maybe. MJ, my fav white EE has been spending a lot of time in the nest box. She has been in it the past two nights at bed time, and spent a good amount of time in it the other day. If I approach her in it she just quietly bock bock hocks, no puffing up and no attacking me when I take the eggs out from under her. I can remove her from the nest and she goes along like there are no problems, eating scratching drinking. She looks good. She pooped normal. Feeling her hind end and belly seems normal to me (though the number of hind ends and chicken bellies that I have felt can be limited to her and chica for reference… they have totally different builds). The last egg that I am certain she laid was on the 24th. She may have laid the 25th, but I am not sure. Her eggs are usually light blue and have a bumpy texture. I certainly collected 5/5 EE eggs on the 24th. Could she be entertaining the idea of going broody? Hopefully? And not something more serious?

Excited to see all the new babies everyone! Have a good night!

 

[16 paws]

Hmm. Doesn't sound good. By the time a chick is dry it is usually no longer wobbly and newborn acting. They are clumsy when they first hatch and are still gooey. And it shouldn't have its eyes closed unless it was sleeping. I would think you probably did the right thing although the chick might not make it. When a mother bored refuses to take care of one of her brood usually means she knows something is wrong with it. Newly hatched chicks rarely show their faces from underneath their mothers wings. Not for a few days anyway. .. so keep a close eye maybe add some poultry vitamins

Well the eyes are open now. I saw it take a drink of water, I added a little sugar because I read somewhere if you dont have the eloctrolites this will help. I also read that sometimes the eyes get sticky from the hatch and to take a q tip and wipe them off. I was going to do that and then I noticed they were open.
I wonder if I should put in another chick that hatched yesterday in with it so it wont be all alone? If it makes it will I be able to give it back to mama?
Marie

 

[ShelbyCoral]

@ShelbyCoral What a cute chick! I am so sorry about the toe thing! Do you have a vet or an avian vet around you could call and ask what to do?




We went to the vet yesterday for the frizzles pedicure appt. (lol it kills me to say that ) They are farm vets (I got to see them do a c-section on a sheep on a picnic table once

) but they also look after my 2 shih-tzu crosses so they are multi-purpose vets lol. I had to actually google pictures of chickens with mg with bubbles on their eye as she had never seen that. She asked her assistant (who is fresh out of school) if he had ever seen anything like it and he said only once on a parrot. So she spent a good 1/2 hour looking through her "medical books" and googling. I will say this....the fact that it was so odd to her gives me hope that maybe it wasn't mg as clearly it isn't common around here. Although she did say well that is probably what it was and gave me crap for not keeping the body. She said she doesn't want to test the rest of the chickens as apparently it is really easy to get a false positive if no one is showing symptoms. So she said if anyone does to bring them in right away. She also made some comment about "well if they all end up dying then you can just start over! If you could have seen the look on her face when I said "uh no these are my babies! Farm vets are great but at the same time have a different mentality than me who is just a backyard chicken keeper.

Today is Day 18. We are down to 4 eggs. The last question marked 1 I recandled yesterday and it hadn't changed. I opened it up and I would say the chick stopped growing about a week in. So that leaves me 3 silkies and 1 either milles fleur /silkie or just straight milles fleur. The farm where I got that egg from is the same one I got Dot from. They have 4 bantam roosters (3 milles fleur D'uccles and 1 silkie) and 3 milles fleur hens. Everyone gets along and no one is separated. Which really attests to how sweet their chickens are. So it's anyones guess what that egg is!

On a weird note Voodoo and Dot were growling today. I have no idea what that is about but they were in different areas doing it. Could that be the "purring" some people talk about?

I don't go to vets. Vets around me have no knowledge in chickens/birds of farm.

 

[16 paws]

I appreciate your thoughts, I too was holding out hope. We are putting a new roof on the barn and I could swear I heard bock bock bock noises all day Sunday. Finally figured out it was a squirrel. I really was hoping Dotty was playing a round of golf. There has been a distinct smell of death further back in the woods. Yesterday my DH took a spin on the 4 wheeler down the trail. There, not too far in, on the other side of the spring was a sad stack of white and black feathers. Tail and wing feathers. The smell is strong down there, but not sure where her final resting place is as the briars have grown up on us. We set up the trail cam. We think it is something on four legs: coyote, fox or bobcat. On high alert from here on out. The chickens are staying close in to the coop and Lucky is staying even closer to Willie Roo. I understand it all, Mother Nature tax, the risk of free ranging. My husband is pretty torn up about it. I love that guy, he is tough but those little soft sides of him just melt my heart.

In other news, I actually have a broody sort of question… maybe. MJ, my fav white EE has been spending a lot of time in the nest box. She has been in it the past two nights at bed time, and spent a good amount of time in it the other day. If I approach her in it she just quietly bock bock hocks, no puffing up and no attacking me when I take the eggs out from under her. I can remove her from the nest and she goes along like there are no problems, eating scratching drinking. She looks good. She pooped normal. Feeling her hind end and belly seems normal to me (though the number of hind ends and chicken bellies that I have felt can be limited to her and chica for reference… they have totally different builds). The last egg that I am certain she laid was on the 24th. She may have laid the 25th, but I am not sure. Her eggs are usually light blue and have a bumpy texture. I certainly collected 5/5 EE eggs on the 24th. Could she be entertaining the idea of going broody? Hopefully? And not something more serious?

Excited to see all the new babies everyone! Have a good night!

Sounds like the beginning of broody to me....mine always start off slow and then get really serious after a few days.

I am so sorry to hear about your loss. The same thing happened to me and it tears you up inside. I still dont know what took Dixie....Found her the same way....

Take care now...
Marie

 

[missnu01]

I would put another chick with the weak one birds don't usually like to be alone. And you may be able to put the chick back with its mother depending on the health and strength of the chick and also the mother. If it takes too long she isn't likely to take the chick back