HELP! 2 chicks hactched successfully but mama abandoned other 2, don't have an incubator one is peeping

[NatJ]

Sounds like a good plan!

 

[Eristas]

Final update. We followed all the advice and slipped Titania and Amber under mamas wing late last night. I watched them on camera all night and it went well. At 5 I opened up the coop and let them out. I saw mama give T & A a few little pecks but they all seemed ok so I went to sleep. My husband checked on them throughout the morning and they seemed fine then as well. I woke up at 2pm and went outside to check on them and found poor little Amber just laying on the ground. She was cold and injured. I brought her back into the brooder and called the vet, we took her down to the specialist farm vet but they said she was really badly injured and suffering and if we brought her home she'd die. They gave her less than 1% odds of surviving even if they tried to treat her so recommeded we put her to sleep so that's what we agreed to. I'm very upset about losing poor little Amber, she was the only fluffy yellow one, the others are black and Titania is grey.

I'm watching them on camera and keeping as close an eye as I can on Titania, she was uninjured and looked like she was integrating ok so fingers crossed it stays that way.

 

[NatJ]

Good idea, watching on the camera. That way you see how the hen acts with no person present, and you don't have to hang out in the chicken pen for hours

I know hens will sometimes refuse to adopt chicks that look different, but the only time I saw it happen, it was immediate--the hen attacked my black chick every single time she saw it, but accepted my yellow chicks.

Since your hen did seem fine with the chick for some hours, I suspect there was some kind of accident, such as the hen stepping on the chick by mistake and then not knowing how to deal with it after it was injured.

There's also a chance that there was something wrong from the beginning, that caused the late hatching and that later caused the chick to act wrong in some way.

I do hope the other three continue to do well!

 

[Eristas]

Good idea, watching on the camera. That way you see how the hen acts with no person present, and you don't have to hang out in the chicken pen for hours

I know hens will sometimes refuse to adopt chicks that look different, but the only time I saw it happen, it was immediate--the hen attacked my black chick every single time she saw it, but accepted my yellow chicks.

Since your hen did seem fine with the chick for some hours, I suspect there was some kind of accident, such as the hen stepping on the chick by mistake and then not knowing how to deal with it after it was injured.

There's also a chance that there was something wrong from the beginning, that caused the late hatching and that later caused the chick to act wrong in some way.

I do hope the other three continue to do well!

Thank you so much for the advice. Amber did seem like a very different chicken from when she hatched. In the brooder I had a small stuffed animal bird with wings and Titania went to snuggle under it but Amber never did. She was also much slower to learn to drink and eat than Titania was and was less steady on her feet. Just developmentally seemed slower than the others so maybe that contributed to what happened.

They're still all sleeping peacefully so I'm hoping I can relax a little bit and maybe get some sleep tonight. Fingers crossed they all make it through tomorrow and then I can breathe a sigh of relief.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I'm sorry you lost your little peep.

 

[Eristas]

I'm sorry you lost your little peep.

Thanks, I appreciate it, my poor little baby.

 

[ChichiMama]

Thanks for the advice, egg #2 which I stuck under mama last night wasn't hatched this morning and mama left it again. I heard movement and cheeping inside so I brought it in the house and put it in the incubator and about an hour later it hatched! He's cheeping away in the incubator, was born about 45mins ago. Titania is in the brooder and the plan is to try and put both of them under mama tonight when she's sleeping.

I also got a nightvision wifi camera so I can keep an eye on them in the coop tonight.

Also, slightly uncoventional but for the brooder I made it out of a large tuppaware container (like a foot square) and put it on top of a seedling heat mat and put a small hot water bottle in. I need the lightbulb for the incubator. It seems to have worked well and Titania likes her underfloor heating! lol

Very crafty!!! Sounds as if you have done this before !!!