Help! Urgent Advice Needed!

[scoopy82]

My first egg to pip hatched - and the mumma hen instantly attacked it! I plucked the poor little thing away from her, and it is still breathing and scrambling about with its eyes shut (when do they open their eyes?) about an hour later. But my problem is i can hear the rest of the eggs pipping, and i really dont want to leave them with her after seeing what she did. Is she likely to get the idea and be nice to the rest that hatch? She is a Leg horn and has been an excellent broodie - but she was quite savage with the way she pecked at this poor baby. I dont have an incubator (trying to make one but it wont be ready in time) and i have rigged up a temporary brooder that i dont know if the temperature will be stable enough to hatch the remaining eggs. Its summer here (aus) so temps are fairly warm anyway, and after the floods at the start of the week it will remain fairly humid, but these other eggs are due today so should i just bite the bullet and put them in the brooder (is currently at 37 degrees celcius so almost 100f) to see if they will hatch? Or leave them with the hen and see what happens? I think she will just attack the rest, but they might not fair any better if i move them and the temp drops in the brooder and i dont catch it in time.
Thought please? And quickly!

 

[Livinwright Farm]

It could be that she senwsed something off with that chick, either a deformity or a health problem... a lot of creatures will kick out, attack or even kill babies that have something "wrong": with them. Or the chick could be a roo, and like most females after baby is born, doesn't want another male withing 5 feet of her for a while?

 

[scoopy82]

Quote:
Hahaha - could be very true!
The little chick is currently in the temporary brooder and doing much better than i expected! It is getting stronger by the minute and although not very vocal - if you touch it - it starts to chirp, is pushing up on its legs and generally getting around okay except its eyes are still closed - i have no idea when they are suppose to open. I'm still not confident it will make it though, its had a VERY rough start and i know how quickly baby animals can crash. I'm just going to do all i can to give it every chance, and i cant do any more than that.
I'm still very worried about the others though and any more advice would be greatly apreciated!!!

 

[jeslewmazer]

Quote:
Could be.

Is the broody separated from any other flock? I have had a game hen attack her clutch right after they hatched because she did not feel safe with the other chickens around. Making it where she can't see other chickens might help.

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I would not want to tell you to remove the remaining eggs, because it could cause any live ones to fail. I don't want that on me

, but if the brooder is right at 100F it could be worth a shot if she continues to try to dispatch her clutch. If you do that though, I would wait until you know for sure she wont stop attacking and that the chicks are going to hatch soon.

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The eyes should basically be open immediately after hatch, but if something is wrong (sick, in pain, etc.) they might keep their eyes closed.

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this is a more natural responce for newly hatched chicks. They want to huddle under the mother hen for warmth.

I hope this helps some.

 

[scoopy82]

Thank you for the reply - especially about the eyes - the little hatchlings eyes are still closed although i can see he is trying to blink, they almost look stuck shut. Poor little thing it is, i dont hold much hope but will give it as much of a chance as possible. And if it makes it - its name will be 'Miracle' and will be kept whether it be a boy or girl.
I think i will just leave the other eggs where they are, if she kills the rest then i will turf her off the nest and will discourage her from going broodie in the future. I have 2 lovely little Isa Brown hens that i might try again with if they ever go broodie, and in the mean time it will give me a chance to set my incubator up perfect and modify the brooder and one day in the near future i might have a little flock of chicks . . .

 

[MTopPA_18707]

If you think the eyes really are stuck shut . . . . wiping them with Q-Tip soaked in warm water might 'unstick' them.

 

[scoopy82]

Oohhhh great tip! I will try that! It is still alive, has made it at least 4-5 hours. Test will be to see if it makes it till the morning, now that will be a miracle!

 

[bantiesrule]

I have OEGBs and a few years ago I had 4 that all hatched out within a week. I put them all together in a seperate cage from all the adult birds. The chicks all mixed together and went under any of the hens. After watching them for awhile, I found one hen would attack any brown one that came near her to the point of killing it. She was a good mother with the rest. I don't know if she thought they were mice or what her problem was with them. I finally had to seperate her with a few black and yellow ones. She was just fine with them and after a few weeks i tried putting her back with the rest and then she was ok with them. Of course, by then her 4 chicks had imprinted on her and that was the only ones that would go under her. Maybe she was just upset about too many chicks being around her? That was her first batch. I still don't know why she just picked on the brown ones.

I realize this doesn't help with your problem but you just never know about chickens. Is this her first time being broody? Maybe she just wasn't sure what it was. She might be ok when there's more than just one. I would just watch her closely.

 

[scoopy82]

I was wondering if that could have something to do with it Bantiesrule - I dont know what colour baby Leg horns are suppose to be but this little one was dark grey/black (thinking it may be a spangled hamburg as the eggs she was sitting on were a mix) and i thought maybe she knew it wasn't the right colour to be hers so got rid of it. Will be interesting to see what she does with the rest anyway. I'm hoping i wake up in the morning to find some little faces poking out from her feathers and a look of contentment on her face but only time will tell.