HELP! PLEASE - new peeps hatched out yesterday!!!

[peacebird]

Can hear them peeping, and heard some pecking out of the shells! I even saw one fluffball very briefly before momma coralled it back under her! They are all in the regular coop. It's a 4X4X4 insulated box, and the ten birds keep it relatively cozy... I may consider moving the peeps and their mommahens into the greenhouse after hatching is complete. It is warmer.... Then again, I may just see how they do with momma hens in the regular unheated coop. They have food and water inside there.... What do you think?

I'll try to get some photos tomorrow.

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Someone with more experience than me will have to answer your question.. but CONGRATULATIONS on your babies!

 

[peacebird]

Help!!! It's 20 degrees outside at 8 am, the water in the coop had some ice but wasn't frozen. Do I try to move the momma hens and take them with whatever peeps have hatched into the heated greenhouse? Or should I leave them in the coop?

 

[MissPrissy]

I say leave her alone. She will protect her chicks. Mother Nature knows what to do. What you can do is make sure they do have flowing water.

 

[peacebird]

bless you! Thank you for answering so quickly!

I have replaced the water with fresh (warm) water from the tap.

Okay - we will leave them be in the coop.... THANK YOU!

 

[MissPrissy]

You are most welcome.

See - I have this idea that we humans often interfere too much and too often. The hen knows instinctively how to take care of those eggs and hatch chicks. The chicks are happy and warm to snuggle under her wings and be folded into her warmth. She'll see that they eat and drink. She might even take them out for a bit in ice and snow. She knows when to get them back in the coop and how to get them warm again. She even knows when something is wrong with a chick and though it seems cruel to us to let one die she will throw it out of her nest. Naturally culling. Leaving the survival to the fittest.

As hard as it is and as tempting as it is to 'help' we people need to stand back and let nature have it course in many cases.

The nerve racking concern never ends. It will be the same when the next batch of eggs hatches - even in the dead of summer.

Enjoy your new fluffy butts. If you're lucky she'll move and let you see them.

 

[Cheryl]

Miss Prissy,
You have such words of wisdom, I always enjoy reading what you write! If I ever get to Virginia, or should you visit NH, we need to drink a cup of coffee/tea/beverage of choice and talk chicken! For that matter I say the same of so many helpful and entertaining people on this site!

 

[ebonykawai]

Congratulations!!! How exciting!

 

[MissPrissy]

Thank you, Cheryl. I would love to sit have a cuppa! I love coffee and iced tea and diet coke. While I love my southern iced tea I love to make it using rosehip and hibicus. Oh my goodness that is a beautiful pink tea to share over girl talk - as is pomegranite and rosehips.

 

[peacebird]

one of the new puffballs has died. It was just outside the coop door when I found it, I don't know if it got knocked outside when the other birds went out, or if mommahen pushed it out...

Thinking it might be the former, we brought it in and warmed it up. It was peeping like mad once warmed up, but when we put it back with mommahen she wouldn't have anything to do with it and has since pushed it across the coop. As the temps are only in the mid 20's today, I don't think the little one had long before it just fell asleep and died.