Horror Story of the Day

[LittleMissEmily]

This morning my sister and I are chit-chatting about nothing important, her in her hall bathroom and I'm in the hall. All of a sudden we hear a pop and the hall and bathroom lights flicker and my chicks make a loud noise from in my bedroom where I'm brooding them (hall and bathroom share a wall with my room, and also share a circuit).
I rush in my room to find that my heat lamp has violently shorted out, falling into my brooder box from where it had earlier been securely clamped. Of course my little ladies were all under it, so it fell on some of them. I run over and grab it as it FREAKING CATCHES ON FIRE, shocking myself in the process (because who cares about one's own safety when their babies are at risk?!?) unplug it, and quickly extinguish it. Thank god we were home at the time!!
One of my little baby buffs (one day old) got injured by the light falling on her, so now I have her separated (but with another baby buff to keep her company) from the older chicks (Goldens, 2 weeks old) who had started picking on her.

Morale of the story: LESSON LEARNED. Always triple check (or 200x check) your heat lamp to make sure it's not too old or not secure enough. If we hadn't been home we may not have had a home to come back to!

Feel free to share your horror stories!

 

[GitaBooks]

Sounds scary! I'm glad things turned out so well. I hope your little chick gets better soon.

As for my horror story, it doesn't end quite so well. One year we had a number of broody chickens start setting at around the same time. We had three bantams, two standards, and a silkie. At that point I think my leghorn and silkie had already raised their clutches.
Anyways, the hens were determined to raise their babies in the nest boxes, no where else, so I marked the eggs to tell them apart. Other hens kept chasing the broodies off or sitting on them to lay new eggs in the nests.
We tried giving some hatching eggs to the two new broodies, since we had taken them from their original mother. We gave them to a sister pair of bantams. We had begun to open the eggs to check on the chicks. This did not turn out. If I remember right one of the sisters ate the stomach out of one of the chicks (earlier my Leghorn had eaten, I'm pretty sure whole, one of her chicks that we had helped hatch too early).
My EE had something like 9 eggs under her, but right before they hatched a hen broke one of the eggs and tossed the premature chick out of the nest. We slipped it back under her and it died and turned to a brown mush that covered the mother and all the eggs, killing one of the other eggs. It smelled awful.
The three remaining chicks that hatched were put into a pen with the EE. My Sebright female hatched two out of what I think was originally five eggs. A number of chicks we had assisted out too early and they died in our hands, too weak to straighten themselves out. My sebright didn't like my EE's chicks and killed them all over a couple days.

Now I'm really careful about chickens going broody in nest boxes. We ended up getting rid of the two sisters, we just couldn't handle it. I feel really bad for Eagle (my EE), but my leghorn, silkie and Sebright all got to raise a few chicks.

Thanks for letting me rant.

My Sebright hen with her two chicks



One of the bantam sisters, who I called the Banshees



My leghorns hatching egg

 

[LittleMissEmily]

Terrifying!!! They are such little cannibals!!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

This morning my sister and I are chit-chatting about nothing important, her in her hall bathroom and I'm in the hall. All of a sudden we hear a pop and the hall and bathroom lights flicker and my chicks make a loud noise from in my bedroom where I'm brooding them (hall and bathroom share a wall with my room, and also share a circuit).
I rush in my room to find that my heat lamp has violently shorted out, falling into my brooder box from where it had earlier been securely clamped. Of course my little ladies were all under it, so it fell on some of them. I run over and grab it as it FREAKING CATCHES ON FIRE, shocking myself in the process (because who cares about one's own safety when their babies are at risk?!?) unplug it, and quickly extinguish it. Thank god we were home at the time!!
One of my little baby buffs (one day old) got injured by the light falling on her, so now I have her separated (but with another baby buff to keep her company) from the older chicks (Goldens, 2 weeks old) who had started picking on her.

Morale of the story: LESSON LEARNED. Always triple check (or 200x check) your heat lamp to make sure it's not too old or not secure enough. If we hadn't been home we may not have had a home to come back to!

Feel free to share your horror stories!

That's scary! When I brooded chicks I placed the heat lamp over the screen that was the lid for the brooder in addition to clamping it, because I was afraid that it might fall in. But if my lamp had shorted out I suppose it still could have caused a fire. Yikes! Thanks for the warning. I hope your little chick who was injured heals well.

 

[LittleMissEmily]

That's what it looked like about two hours after it happened. She got burned and then the other chicks decided that attacking her was a splendid idea (freaky little cannibals!!)
I got some of that anti cannibalism lotion this morning and put it on top of her head, not touching where she was hurt.
She's eating and drinking just fine and can open both of her eyes, too. She'll probably just have a funny looking comb when she's older, but so far it's been 24 hours after the incident and she's been a little trooper the whole time!!

 

[GitaBooks]

Make sure the burn stays clean and doesn't become infected. Try putting some burn medication on it or some antibiotic ointment, as chicks are prone to infection upon injury.
I hope she gets better soon!

 

[LittleMissEmily]

I've put antibacterial cream on it about four times now, I think she'll be all right. If not then I'm planning on getting some antibiotics that I can put in her water for her.

 

[GitaBooks]

Sounds good.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

That's what it looked like about two hours after it happened. She got burned and then the other chicks decided that attacking her was a splendid idea (freaky little cannibals!!)
I got some of that anti cannibalism lotion this morning and put it on top of her head, not touching where she was hurt.
She's eating and drinking just fine and can open both of her eyes, too. She'll probably just have a funny looking comb when she's older, but so far it's been 24 hours after the incident and she's been a little trooper the whole time!!

It is great that she is eating and drinking fine and that her eyes are not affected. Antibiotic ointment should be enough. If the others do any more pecking despite your efforts, then you could try separating her within the brooder so that she can see the other chicks but they can not touch her.

 

[LittleMissEmily]

3am Monday morning, and the burn happened around 1pm Friday afternoon.
She's healing nicely, and we have dubbed her "Scorch." The brown stuff on her head is the anti cannibalism lotion, seems to be working so far!! She's still eating and drinking and running around with the other chicks like a little maniac, and I put her back in with the older chicks as soon as it scabbed over (Saturday morning, around 10am). I think that because she was so young though the heat from the lamp damaged the holes for breathing through her beak, because she only breathes through her mouth now. She's still growing at the same rate as the other baby buffs that I got with her at the same time, so I'm gonna take that as a good sign