We had to do a rescue this afternoon. We let our little Nankin Bantam broody and her four almost-two-week-old babies out in the main coop today. They've been in a large dog kennel for most of her setting and since hatch. The babies could go out into the main coop through the bars of the kennel, but Mama had to stay in. Papa and the two other hens have been in the coop and none have bothered the babies at all ... until today. I'm not sure what happened, but my daughter rescued one chick who was pinned in the corner being pecked by everyone but its' mother. Poor Pepper was apoplectic!
DD rescued the chick and immediately brought it to me. It had a large patch of skin laid open on the side of its' neck. I told my daughter to go get the others, so we could check them over. It's a good thing we did! We have two babies with nasty, open wounds on their necks. One also has a broken blood feather under its' wing. It has no obvious leg injuries, but is limping. The other two were seriously stressed, but seem physically okay.
We have one VERY unhappy Mama on our hands. She's been so protective of these babies that we couldn't get near them - or her - without her drawing blood on us. Because of her nasty behavior, we talked about taking the babies out, yesterday, so we could handle them. Now I seriously wish we had done more than just talk about it. At least now, there's a chance Pepper will settle down again. In the meantime, the babies are all together and safe. We've put all four of Pepper's babies inside, in the large guinea pig cage/brooder box with Evie (two weeks older) and Jacki (five days younger.)
When things settle down completely, probably tomorrow, we plan to mark the unblemished chicks, including Evie and Jacki, with Blu-Kote toes, so we can tell them all apart as they grow. Despite the misadventure, they seem to have all accepted the change and are getting along very well. Everyone except poor Pepper, that is.
I thought about posting pictures, but if you've ever tried to spray Blu-Kote on a 10-day-old, frightened peep, you know what a mess we made. There is Blu-Kote EVERYWHERE! Two of the babies look like Easter Eggs. Not Easter Eggers, Easter EGGS! They are bright, vivid ... almost neon ... purple from their heads to the middle of their backs. As a matter of fact, so am I - purple from finger tips to wrists! Are we having fun, yet?
DD rescued the chick and immediately brought it to me. It had a large patch of skin laid open on the side of its' neck. I told my daughter to go get the others, so we could check them over. It's a good thing we did! We have two babies with nasty, open wounds on their necks. One also has a broken blood feather under its' wing. It has no obvious leg injuries, but is limping. The other two were seriously stressed, but seem physically okay.
We have one VERY unhappy Mama on our hands. She's been so protective of these babies that we couldn't get near them - or her - without her drawing blood on us. Because of her nasty behavior, we talked about taking the babies out, yesterday, so we could handle them. Now I seriously wish we had done more than just talk about it. At least now, there's a chance Pepper will settle down again. In the meantime, the babies are all together and safe. We've put all four of Pepper's babies inside, in the large guinea pig cage/brooder box with Evie (two weeks older) and Jacki (five days younger.)
When things settle down completely, probably tomorrow, we plan to mark the unblemished chicks, including Evie and Jacki, with Blu-Kote toes, so we can tell them all apart as they grow. Despite the misadventure, they seem to have all accepted the change and are getting along very well. Everyone except poor Pepper, that is.
I thought about posting pictures, but if you've ever tried to spray Blu-Kote on a 10-day-old, frightened peep, you know what a mess we made. There is Blu-Kote EVERYWHERE! Two of the babies look like Easter Eggs. Not Easter Eggers, Easter EGGS! They are bright, vivid ... almost neon ... purple from their heads to the middle of their backs. As a matter of fact, so am I - purple from finger tips to wrists! Are we having fun, yet?
