Is my chick sleepy or is something wrong

[jessije]

Hello! I am very new to the chicken thing. We had two eggs hatch a day ago. I have read what to do, and watched YouTube videos....but I am not feeling confident that I have done everything correct and am worried about one of my two chicks. They seemed great yesterday. We moved them out of the incubator and into their little baby chick home (card board box, bedding, organic chick starter feed, homemade water system (so they wont drown), heat lamp). One of the chicks seems to be "sleeping" a lot. It will move around, but seems to be only hopping....where the other chick is standing strong and moving a lot more. Also, the chick that I am worried about has its eyes closed, even when I picked it up. Is this normal or should I prepare for the worst?? I have wiped its bottom with a warm rag....no blockage. I also attempted to give it a tiny bit of sugar water, but I dont think that it actually got much, if any at all. I have seen it use the restroom and it drank water and pecked at its food yesterday.......not sure what changed. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Welcome to BYC and to chickens! What breeds are your chicks, just wondering?

I've done a few hatches and in my experience, chicks sleep a lot. Especially when they are young. When did you take them out of the incubator? Did you wait 24 hours till they were dry, or take them out sooner?

I have heard it's best to wait 24 hours, so that's what I do with mine and haven't had a problem with it. If you took yours out sooner perhaps the chick is just "catching up".

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Oh and apple cider vinegar is very healthy in the water!

 

[azygous]

For the first two or three days, the chicks won't be doing much eating, though you might dip their beaks into their water to show them how to do it. Mostly, they'll sleep.

By the fourth or fifth day, they should be eating chick crumbles easily, if not a whole lot. If they are still standing around with eyes closed, they may need extra help. Try moistening the crumbles, or feeding boiled egg yolk if they aren't eating the dry crumbles. Crumbled tofu is a very good "chick starter" if they can't or won't eat crumbles. At five or six days, they're quite active and lively. By seven days old, they're finding out they have little wings and can use them. Make sure their container contains them.

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[pinkyglory123]

After hatching my first batch in an incubator after using broody hens I was shocked at how much the chicks slept at first. I had them in an aquarium (obviously not filled with water!

) with a heat lamp above in my garage. They were sacked out on their sides like a bunch of slugs almost all the time. Apparently hatching is hard work and they are babies after all.