Hi, I am a happy hen housewife. I have been wanting chickens for a long time. My daughter in law is a school teacher and they hatched some chickens at her school. So when they were 2 weeks old she called me and asked, " do you still want chickens?' Of course I did!! She said i have to bring them home today!!!! I wanted chickens, but had no idea how to care for them. I immediately went to the tractor supply and bought everything they needed.
The second day I had them my cat knocked over the top grate and took one of the chicks in his mouth. While yelling at him, i chased him outside!! He turned around and licked his lips; I went back inside crying! When I went back into where the chicks were I found the baby in the corner; i picked her up and put her back in the plastic box, but this time I taped the top grate on.
When my daughter got home from work, I told her what happened and she asked if the chick had any injuries? I told her i was too afraid to check. We got the chick out and examined her; her left wing was broken and there was a puncture wound on her left side. We cleaned up the wound and put her back in the box.
The next day I noticed she could not move her left wing and she would not eat or drink anything ... she had failure to thrive. I put her in a seperate box with food and water. The 3rd day she still would not eat or drink. So I mixed her starter crumble with vitamin water and feed her with a syringe. I literally had to pry her beak open and put the food down her.
I picked her up and noticed that she had poop on her butt. That is when I found this site ... backyard chickens. It said she had pasty butt. I washed it under warm water and had to repeat that several times that day.
The next day she would yelp every time she pooped. I picked her up and saw that her butt was hanging out. I quickly picked up the others to see if that was normal ... it was not. I got online to research and found out that she had vent prolapse. The web sites said to push it back into place with a Q tip. I did, but every time she tweeted, her prolapse would come back out. Someone said for egg bound chickens, soak the butt in epsom salt. I soaked her 3 times that day. The next day her butt was back where it should be ... yea!!!!!
Baby is the small one on the left. She is the same age as the white one.
That was just the first week of chicken keeping!!!
The second day I had them my cat knocked over the top grate and took one of the chicks in his mouth. While yelling at him, i chased him outside!! He turned around and licked his lips; I went back inside crying! When I went back into where the chicks were I found the baby in the corner; i picked her up and put her back in the plastic box, but this time I taped the top grate on.
When my daughter got home from work, I told her what happened and she asked if the chick had any injuries? I told her i was too afraid to check. We got the chick out and examined her; her left wing was broken and there was a puncture wound on her left side. We cleaned up the wound and put her back in the box.
The next day I noticed she could not move her left wing and she would not eat or drink anything ... she had failure to thrive. I put her in a seperate box with food and water. The 3rd day she still would not eat or drink. So I mixed her starter crumble with vitamin water and feed her with a syringe. I literally had to pry her beak open and put the food down her.
I picked her up and noticed that she had poop on her butt. That is when I found this site ... backyard chickens. It said she had pasty butt. I washed it under warm water and had to repeat that several times that day.
The next day she would yelp every time she pooped. I picked her up and saw that her butt was hanging out. I quickly picked up the others to see if that was normal ... it was not. I got online to research and found out that she had vent prolapse. The web sites said to push it back into place with a Q tip. I did, but every time she tweeted, her prolapse would come back out. Someone said for egg bound chickens, soak the butt in epsom salt. I soaked her 3 times that day. The next day her butt was back where it should be ... yea!!!!!
Baby is the small one on the left. She is the same age as the white one.
That was just the first week of chicken keeping!!!
Welcome to BYC!!! 
Cute chicks!
We are glad you joined our flock!
Have fun with those adorable fuzz babies! 
