I messed up and now all but 1 baby is dead!! **UPDATE!!! PICS heavy***

Jencleg

Songster
8 Years
May 5, 2011
251
7
113
Jasper
I am so upset!! I am also posting this in a few different spots in hopes of getting more opinions...Last night I finally felt comfortable putting our (6) 7 week old babies in the coop we were working on, since I was afraid it was going to rain today. My husband went to check them this morning & 5 of them were laying in the floor dead. All of their necks were broken, what would kill them and NOT eat them?? The saddest part is was when he looked in, he found that our smallest chick Lulu was still huddled in the corner of the doll house that they had been sleeping in. Now she is all alone & peeping her lil heart out! IF I can find some, can I put more chicks with her?? She is going to be so lonley. I am 99% sure that she is a girl because she was the smallest of them all & she was very shy around everything, even treats. She is very calm & sweet and still pretty small. She can fit in your palm. What age buddies should I look for since it seems that she is a runt? what do I do now??


UPDATE! I found a lady that had some chicks for sale, but she only had chicks that were way smaller or way bigger than our lil Lulu so we gambled & bought 2 baby cochins in the hopes of her being so lonley that she would cut them some slack & NOT peck them to death....
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So far so good! She pecked at the smaller one once when we first put them in & then a little later, I checked & she would peck at it's beak but it almost looked like she was grooming her? After a few minutes they were running under her and one actually slept tucked un der her wing. This morning they were all still there & looked healthy. She actually kept trying to step in front of them when I took the picutures this morning.

If she was gonna kill them would she have done it already??
 
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First, your lonely, LUCKY little chick: Hold her as much as possible & give her some human company. Give her the company of being next to another small caged animal like a parakeet or a hamster, if you have one or can borrow one in a cage for a few days. What age is she? another chick of the same size, more than age, would work great, especially a pullet.

Second, everyone makes mistakes and learns form them, even if they've had chickens for 15 years!

Third, I'd suspect first, a weasel who was sated for the night but wanted to make sure she had extra meat on hold for her babies (only if you find teethmarks) . Second, might be a cat as well, in that we have several feral cats living in the woods behind our house. The neighbor feeds them (venison, daily!), but they simply kill for the game of it, by shaking the local birds and chipmunks until they're dead. There are very small teeth marks, sometimes no feathers around, little or no blood. Check their necks & backs thoroughly if you still can.
 
Hey folks - a reminder of the rules:

*Compassion will go a long way toward helping to educate and help solve someone's predator problem. No matter the reason, most members' birds are their pets and being a chicken doesn't make it less of a pet than a house cat or companion dog. Please don't lecture or hassle anyone about their losses. Glass houses......


Keeping chickens is a learning process for everyone. You think you have a secure set up and learn the hard way that it's not secure. You learn from it to keep it from happening again.
 
HI,
I am sorry for your loss also.....................
One more thought that does not line up if thier necks were truely broken.
I will hesitsntly admit that I lost some older chicks last year as a resukt of my stupid.............
Nearly killed me wih guilt.
I moved them from the house to the coop in the barn.
Our weather had been fair............a storm hit.temp dropped like a rock and they piled
up smothering a few on the bottom. I still feel sick whin I think about it.
I put flakes of hay around the bottom of the coop the next day so there were no longer corners to pile in. That resolved the problem.
Anyway, is it poosoble this could have happened...maybe not..........
Good luck finding a friend for your chick.
 
As for the comment posted earlier...he was right. I FAILED to protect my little flock & now I will have to live with that. He has every right to call me out on my mistake and although I did feel a little bit blindsided, I appreciate his honesty.

I would have lost them a long time ago if it had not been for all the "seasoned pros" on this website to help me out these last few weeks.
 
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CL may have someone in your area with a buddy for your gal.... Good luck dear.. so sorry..she is so cute
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Sorry for your loss!!
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But I really don't know of anything that would just kill them. Tell us a little something on your weather conditions!!

And yes you can add some chicks! She'd be really glad you did!!
 
Kinda sound like something reached thru the wire, but if it was a coon, they usually pull them thru the gap in pieces. Are you sure the necks weren't bit thru like a rat? But again they don't kill and not eat some part of the bird. Even weasels will drink the blood.

Humans and dogs are all that come to mind that kill for sport or chase instinct.

As for what to do now, an excellent chance to handle the remaining chick, but beware, my wife's goose was handled a lot when little and now at 10 pounds, loves to sit on her shoulder and in her lap
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A idea to identify the culprit is to lay down plywood that is lightly covered in flour, place a bait or bird carcass in the middle, and see what tracks you have in the morning. (stole that idea from another owner and it works!)

How about posting a pic of your coop & run so we can see what you have, also where you live will help with suggestions
 
In her title, she has mentioned that she made a mistake. I'm betting she will remedy the situation before she puts any chicks outside again.

I do understand your questions though.....Jencleg, are you sure your chick's necks were broken? Was there a sign of struggle, like feathers everywhere, or did you just find them dead, with limp necks? Could they have gotten too hot or too cold? And I would definitely make sure everything is very secure before you put her and new friends out again if it was indeed a predator.

And what I would do, is put a few chicks in there that are close to the same size if you can. That will make a transition nice and smooth for you. If you can't find chicks that are similar in size, then you should maybe raise a few up in a separate brooder, and then introduce them a bit later, when the young ones have had time to grow.

Good luck to you and I hope you figure out what went wrong......Sooo sorry for your loss,

Sharon
 
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