She's been super super broody lately, so I'm worried about moving her. Despite this she's a really terrible mom.. her first peep managed to squeeze between a 1-2" crack in the back of the henhouse and couldn't figure out how to get back in(Note that the henhouse has a small area around it for the chickens to graze, so the chick wasn't in any danger). I found her, and put her back in with her mom. This resulted in a particularly savage scolding, at which point I took her from her mom until my hen chilled the hell out(I've seen chickens scold their peeps before, this looked more like she was trying to peck its skull open to eat it), and put her back with the hen. I stayed for ten to twenty minutes to ensure she wasn't going to keep at it, and came back the next day to a dead peep laying a foot away from her mom
This time, she defecated ALL OVER the peep(She hasn't been eating very much since shes been broody, so she's had fairly watery leavings). So I had to take the peep in and clean it up(Cleaning up a peep and managing to keep it warm is really hard X.X), so I brought her out to her mom and waited, then set her down and managed to catch the hen before she took to scolding her again.
At this point I took her inside and put her in with a heating lamp and a small imprinting-toy-fluffy-naptime-thing(Basically a small straw-stuffed pillow with feathers all over it). She wouldn't quiet down, so I figured the heating lamp wasn't enough. I tried putting her with my old hen whose had a number of successful peepings, but while she was very gentle with the peep, didnt want to have anything to do with her(Once the peep got settled down, she'd move to another area, etc). So I've finally gotten out my old rat cage(4 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot, plastic bottom.. its all super safe stuff with loads of room), loaded up the bottom with about an inch and a half of sawdust and then made a large nest out of straw for them. Got my quick chick starter water and some mushy pullet crumble for when she gets hungry tomorrow(And for the hen now), and put my hen in there with her.
So far she hasn't been very aggressive, but I'm still worried. At least they're both sleeping. What should I do? :X I dont want to lose another peep(Especially since my flock is so small!)
This time, she defecated ALL OVER the peep(She hasn't been eating very much since shes been broody, so she's had fairly watery leavings). So I had to take the peep in and clean it up(Cleaning up a peep and managing to keep it warm is really hard X.X), so I brought her out to her mom and waited, then set her down and managed to catch the hen before she took to scolding her again.
At this point I took her inside and put her in with a heating lamp and a small imprinting-toy-fluffy-naptime-thing(Basically a small straw-stuffed pillow with feathers all over it). She wouldn't quiet down, so I figured the heating lamp wasn't enough. I tried putting her with my old hen whose had a number of successful peepings, but while she was very gentle with the peep, didnt want to have anything to do with her(Once the peep got settled down, she'd move to another area, etc). So I've finally gotten out my old rat cage(4 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot, plastic bottom.. its all super safe stuff with loads of room), loaded up the bottom with about an inch and a half of sawdust and then made a large nest out of straw for them. Got my quick chick starter water and some mushy pullet crumble for when she gets hungry tomorrow(And for the hen now), and put my hen in there with her.
So far she hasn't been very aggressive, but I'm still worried. At least they're both sleeping. What should I do? :X I dont want to lose another peep(Especially since my flock is so small!)
