Meet the Nuts

[DobieLover]

It doesn't matter. At most we'll have 2 chicks. I think we're going to have zero. I don't think they'll make it through the night. With luck, she can be happy that I'll be back down to one chicken in my so called "tiny" little coop, that literally fits the description she gave me and is significantly larger and much better designed than most coops I've seen. I had hoped to have a helpful supportive community here who would help me when I needed help with what I needed help with, not give me unsolicited advice anticipating that I'm doing everything wrong and waiting to pounce on me when they find something. She made me feel terrible, attacked and unsafe enough here that I've been going through hell alone today because I'm afraid of having "well meaning" busybodies attack me rather than help me with what I'm going through. I don't know what to do and things have been getting worse and worse since last night, but I couldn't get answers when I needed help last night, then her, then everyone defending her. I tried laughing about it to my husband at breakfast this morning how silly and ridiculous it was that she was looking for something to nitpick about and when I passed the "rooster" test, she started telling me my coop was too small because I needed x amount of space when I had x+y in all cases and he said, "why are you engaging with a troll? their only goal is to get you rilled up, zap your energy and waste your time." So I thought, oh, yeah, he's right, she's being a troll, so, I'll move on, but all I found out was that bullying as long as you phrase it as "advice" is allowed here. Well, congratulations, you are a resounding success Dobie. You have completely zapped my emotional energy today. I felt ganged up on by all of you defending her and here I am, wasting my time even more because leaving it alone didn't help. But no, I'm wasting my time arguing about something stupid instead of feeling like I can ask the questions I need to because I don't feel supported here, I feel attacked when I'm down. So I didn't ask. So now I have a dead chick, a presumed dud, an extremely sick chicken alone in a box and 2 eggs in a makeshift incubator, 1 in really bad shape and 1 just pipped, both thankfully alive for now, and a child who might literally lose his mind with grief if they don't pull though. FB... back on FB, my chicken group hasn't been super responsive lately, but I've never been treated like this there.

Wow. You really read a lot into a simple attempt at trying to help you. I'm sorry you felt I was attacking you, pouncing on you and trying to rile you up. I was trying to help you avoid future issues.
I'm really sorry you are going through so much. This really is a very helpful, supportive group.
I and many other members can help you. The best way we help you is by asking lots of questions and making observations.
THE biggest problem I see here on BYC with health and behavioral issues boils down to undersized and improperly designed housing. Most of the pre-fabs are designed to be cute and inexperienced chicken owners do not know that they are not appropriate. I was only trying to let you know that the coop is too small because you will likely run into issues as so many others have before you. You will have to figure that out with time.
NO ONE here is trying to hurt you. We are only trying to help. You are going through a very tough time with the birds and it is very emotionally draining and can put you on edge. I've been through that before. I know exactly what it feels like so I feel for you.
I'm an engineer by training and I guess it's in my blood because I tend to just make observations and state conclusions I can draw from them rather succinctly. I'm most assuredly not a troll. But I am blunt.
I read your other thread on what is going on with your broody. That's terrible. Have you tried dusting her with some permethrin based poultry dust?
How is she doing now?
Have the other eggs hatched?
Hopefully the hatch is over and you can focus on helping your broody recover. I would offer her some sardines or tuna in addition to chick starter or Flock Raiser, any complete feed with 18-20% protein to help build her back up from the mites/lice you are trying to get off of her. Also offer her some Poultry Nutridrench.
As soon as you can, move her out of the coop so you can treat her again and do a full blown clean out of the coop. Rosalie will need to be treated as well. Maybe you could crate them separately but next to each other in your garage or a spare room in your house until you finish tackling the coop. Try to keep Esmeralda warm.
I would get some concentrated permethrin, Permethrin 10. Dilute it per the label instructions into a garden pressure sprayer and use that solution for the coop. After you remove every last bit of bedding from the coop and sweep/vacuum it out with a shop vac, spray down every surface inside and outside the coop paying particular attention to the places where wood meets wood as that is where the mites hide during the day. Let the coop dry out. You can use a large floor fan or whatever you have to speed up the process. Then add fresh bedding.
All of the above will need to be repeated in 7-10 to kill the mites that hatch from the eggs that aren't killed by the spray the first time. Sometimes it takes a third treatment if the infestation was bad.
I hope you read this.
I hope it helps you.
If nothing else comes from this, I sincerely hope it made you feel better writing down all that you did, even if you've misinterpreted me and my intentions.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Wow. You really read a lot into a simple attempt at trying to help you. I'm sorry you felt I was attacking you, pouncing on you and trying to rile you up. I was trying to help you avoid future issues.
I'm really sorry you are going through so much. This really is a very helpful, supportive group.
I and many other members can help you. The best way we help you is by asking lots of questions and making observations.
THE biggest problem I see here on BYC with health and behavioral issues boils down to undersized and improperly designed housing. Most of the pre-fabs are designed to be cute and inexperienced chicken owners do not know that they are not appropriate. I was only trying to let you know that the coop is too small because you will likely run into issues as so many others have before you. You will have to figure that out with time.
NO ONE here is trying to hurt you. We are only trying to help. You are going through a very tough time with the birds and it is very emotionally draining and can put you on edge. I've been through that before. I know exactly what it feels like so I feel for you.
I'm an engineer by training and I guess it's in my blood because I tend to just make observations and state conclusions I can draw from them rather succinctly. I'm most assuredly not a troll. But I am blunt.
I read your other thread on what is going on with your broody. That's terrible. Have you tried dusting her with some permethrin based poultry dust?
How is she doing now?
Have the other eggs hatched?
Hopefully the hatch is over and you can focus on helping your broody recover. I would offer her some sardines or tuna in addition to chick starter or Flock Raiser, any complete feed with 18-20% protein to help build her back up from the mites/lice you are trying to get off of her. Also offer her some Poultry Nutridrench.
As soon as you can, move her out of the coop so you can treat her again and do a full blown clean out of the coop. Rosalie will need to be treated as well. Maybe you could crate them separately but next to each other in your garage or a spare room in your house until you finish tackling the coop. Try to keep Esmeralda warm.
I would get some concentrated permethrin, Permethrin 10. Dilute it per the label instructions into a garden pressure sprayer and use that solution for the coop. After you remove every last bit of bedding from the coop and sweep/vacuum it out with a shop vac, spray down every surface inside and outside the coop paying particular attention to the places where wood meets wood as that is where the mites hide during the day. Let the coop dry out. You can use a large floor fan or whatever you have to speed up the process. Then add fresh bedding.
All of the above will need to be repeated in 7-10 to kill the mites that hatch from the eggs that aren't killed by the spray the first time. Sometimes it takes a third treatment if the infestation was bad.
I hope you read this.
I hope it helps you.
If nothing else comes from this, I sincerely hope it made you feel better writing down all that you did, even if you've misinterpreted me and my intentions.

One of the eggs was a yolker, which I suspected, but it appeared to have grown halfway through so I'd left it in. The first chick died and appeared to have feces in its mouth, but who knows. Maybe it was the mites/lice (my other group thought it was poultry lice, not mites). Maybe it got too cold. Maybe she killed it. Either way, when she had repeated massive amounts of diarrhea, between the two issues, I made the call and pulled the eggs for what I perceived to the the safety of the chicks. I made a makeshift incubator by taking a brooder plate and turning the plastic cap upside down underneath and put a sponge with water at the bottom and cut a salad spinner down to fit. I had preheated it just in case we needed it. I grabbed the eggs which hadn't pipped yet and put them in the same orientation that had been under Esmerelda. I don't think I had the humidity high enough at first and put some more water in after the first chick's membrane seemed to be dry. I have a suspicion that a child snuck out of their bedroom and stabbed one of the eggs (the first to pip) with the thermometer and I didn't think it was going to make it; the membrane looked quite red, plus the humidity issue. It kept chirping though. The next morning we had one chick from the second egg and the first one still at it. It had unzipped fully but its toes were through the membrane and was having trouble getting out and the membrane seemed a bit too dry. I didn't see any blood vessels and it looked like the blood had been absorbed. I ended up dabbing it with a warm wet sponge and took a piece of the eggshell and connected a couple of the little tears in the membrane and tried to hold my finger over where the toes kept poking out so it could push itself out. So far they're both living. The second one is definitely weaker than the first. It looks a lot more like the one that died, sleepy looking half closed eyes, a little unsteady on its feet, even today. It drinks well and has been pecking at food.

After I pulled the eggs, I pulled Esmerelda off the nest and made her go out in the yard. She went and took a bath and did her chicken thing. I took the coop apart and power washed the entire thing and laid it out to dry. I was advised to spray her with human lice spray, which was really the only thing I was able to get in my area on short notice anyway. After a couple hours Esmerelda started freaking out and looking for her babies and I felt awful. I wanted to give them back, but her whole bottom was covered with diarrhea and it was getting dark and I was going to have to put them to sleep in the temporary coop for the night. I didn't want to bring her in the house to bathe her with a bug issue. I got her to roost but she wasn't happy. I tried to feed her some scrambled egg but she kept crying and looking for the babies and only ate about half the egg. I made her a little nest box and put the yolker egg in it because I was sure it wasn't going to be a chick. She settled down and went to sleep. the next day my husband let them out and I found the egg on the floor stone cold but the nest box wasn't turned over. I asked him if he'd taken it out and he said no. After that she stopped acting broody. I guess maybe she recognized that one wasn't peeping at her and decided her babies weren't alive anymore an moved on. I dusted the coop with DE (I don't have anything permethrin based, it was the best I could do at the time) and we put it back together in a different part of the yard. Esmerelda and Rosalie were happily dustbathing together and Rosalie kept sticking her head into Esmerelda's feathers and biting at her, I'm assuming eating bugs off her? She looked better, but her butt feathers are still covered in poop. I don't know what the deal with the poop is. I had just switched her to the medicated chick feed on day 18 when I ran out of the non medicated on I'd been feeding her that I had happened to have on hand, plus she held her poop for 2 days.

The coop is not a typical "prefab". Isabelle and Rosalie came in one of those prefabs and it was far too small for even two chickens free ranging. This thing looked like a palace next to it. It's really a great design, especially because it gets around a lot of zoning issues we'd have with a coop otherwise. I've seen 5 chickens very happily in it.

I didn't want to put the chicks with a sick, infested hen, especially since one of them already died right after birth, and that one was the biggest of them. It was a hard call and I realize I don't know much about raising chicks and I was planning to let a broody raise them and I'm not looking forward to having to try to integrate them when they're older. We had some supplies because I had thought about doing chicks on my own this spring and decided to hold off. I currently have them in a "baby box" with a puppy pad on the bottom, a nipple waterer mounted on the side, medicated feed, a 12"x12" heating plate brooder with a dome cover on an angle so they can choose the heat, chick grit, and a mirror so we can see under the plate without disturbing them. They like looking in the mirror, they're pretty good at getting the water. The firstborn chick looks more like a normal chick and is stronger, more sturdy and eating better. The second chick has a longer neck, is less steady on its feet, has squinty eyes, sleeps more, is more timid and doesn't seem to be as good at eating, though it is eating. It is great at drinking and picked up the nipple waterer faster than the other. I have 2 different sized wire cages, but at this size they're just go right through them, so I figured the box is better for now.

pics from right after birth. The one on the faux grass is the healthier one. The one laying down is doing better than that now. Don't have pics from today.

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Both seem to be doing well now.

 

[swampfox440]

Both seem to be doing well now.

How cute they are !!!!

 

[Iluveggers]

Hello and welcome to Backyard Chickens!

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

5 days old today. The chicks have been named. The grey one with the black dot on its head is Sapphire and the darker one with the grey dot on its head is Onyx. They already have their own little personalities. Sapphire seems to be feathering out faster, but from what I understand, Ameraucanas aren't feather sexed, correct? Maybe just got a head start on eating? Onyx is a timid, cuddly sweetheart and Sapphire is a bold, self assured adventurer.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Any updates on the littles?

 

[Chicken Soap with Nuts]

Any updates on the littles?