Awww, I'm sorry about Rascal. These chicken friends of ours sure have a way of capturing our hearts.
One of my broodies got killed defending her eggies from a big old opossum (but I then got the 'possum!) but two of the others have recently hatched out their chickies. One hatched 2 of 4, then I gave her 2 unhatched eggs to the other hen. Stupidly I neglected to mark those 2 eggs, so when the other hen hatched out 3 of 5 eggs, I can't be sure if any of those were from the first hen's clutch.
Right now I have 5 hens with 19 chicks all together, and another hen setting on 4 eggs.
I usually don't interfere much with chicks hatching under hens, but with the last batch there was one chick who somehow had much of its shell chipped off leaving its membrane intact & dried. I snipped it loose and got it free. Another chick was found newly-hatched and wet & cold about 3 inches away from the Mama hen. I thought it was dead, but it wriggled so I put it under the hen for warmth. Both chickies are doing fine now!
I hope everyone's hatch is successful!
One of my broodies got killed defending her eggies from a big old opossum (but I then got the 'possum!) but two of the others have recently hatched out their chickies. One hatched 2 of 4, then I gave her 2 unhatched eggs to the other hen. Stupidly I neglected to mark those 2 eggs, so when the other hen hatched out 3 of 5 eggs, I can't be sure if any of those were from the first hen's clutch.
Right now I have 5 hens with 19 chicks all together, and another hen setting on 4 eggs.
I usually don't interfere much with chicks hatching under hens, but with the last batch there was one chick who somehow had much of its shell chipped off leaving its membrane intact & dried. I snipped it loose and got it free. Another chick was found newly-hatched and wet & cold about 3 inches away from the Mama hen. I thought it was dead, but it wriggled so I put it under the hen for warmth. Both chickies are doing fine now!
I hope everyone's hatch is successful!
