Help! my 3 week old chicks! please!

[lucyharper123]

my hens are free range as i live on a farm and i do have a cockrel, it is winter and my hens are still laying but a few weeks ago i found out that one of my hens was secretly sitting on two eggs! they hatched but then the mother took no interest in them, so i took them into my care and i had some bad luck as my bulb broke in my heat lamp ! and i cant get a hold of another one for a while so my chicks belle&rocky have been surviving with a hot water bottel and next to a radiator ! but now ive noticed they are making a crackley noise, look tired & unbalenced and this may sound stupid but one looks conctipated please tell me what to do they are like my newborn babys !

 

[TweeTea]

do you have an electric blanket? I used this as an emergency measure to keep chicks warm in my laundry at the end of winter.

What are the chicks eating?
Do you have other pets?
What do their poos look like and are their bottoms clean?
Have you put poison out recently for rats or mice?

 

[TweeTea]

Ah this is the chick with the possible respiratory disease that ate the beetle, sorry I missed the connection to begin with.

I wouldn't worry about the beetle, once the food gets past the chooks throat it should be fine, you can see the crop moving in circular motion if you have the patience, it grinds up beetles no worries. I once saw my girl eat a palm sized spider which freaked me out but they are build for beetle distruction.

If she has a respiratory disease I am not sure what would help other than antibiotics. That is all that cures my respiratory tract infections. Perhaps we can visit the vet together with our chicks