my hen is stupid..... will the chick survive?

[Chickiemom25]

One egg hatched yesterday and the chick was dead before I got home. laying away from the broody hen. The other hatched today and I came home to an almost dead chick that Emelio was not sitting on so it was cold. It was 4 inches from its momma. We brought it in the house, dusted off the ants that had found it ( ants arent in the coop usually) and got the heat lamp out.. chick is peeping, having a hard time holding its head up, tries to get its legs under it occationally but cant yet... Brought a dog crate in the house, put fresh shavings in it and moved the hen and chick into it.. Emelio is now laying on the chick... I had given it a few drops of sugar water too to revive it while warming.... think it will survive? I left a heat lamp on in the crate in case stupid hen gets off the chick again....

Honestly I dont know how these things reproduce naturally.. My other 2 hens of course were off stuffing their beaks with anything they could find to eat... No idea where their eggs were laid today as they arent in the boxes.

 

[MamaMarcy]

I personally would separate them and raise it under the light. But I'm not an expert.

 

[pek]

i argee. i had one hatch out in the coup more than a year ago. i took the chick inside away from mama and papa, put her under the light with some food water and shavings. she was fine uptil last summer when she got eaten by a fox

 

[stephanie1992]

i had a hen hatch eggs, as soo as the chicks were out and dry, she ate them all. ther was 4 and she ate them before i had a chance to do anything. chickens are soo stupid sometimes

 

[mstricer]

keep an eye on the hen. If she is doing fine with the chick I would leave her with it. Just make sure they both have food and water near. If you take the chick it will cry a lot because it is alone.

 

[jengro65]

Quote:
Out of curiosity....what breed of chicken was she? Was it her first hatch?

 

[stephanie1992]

Quote:
Out of curiosity....what breed of chicken was she? Was it her first hatch?

idk if it was her first hatch. she was 4 years old and given to me at 3 years old. i think she was an ameracana or a mix of some kind. she was mean and would bite u if u got near her. i didnt want her to sit on the eggs but she bit me when i tryed to get them. and made me bleed. so i left them.

 

[flocksalot]

Is this her first brood? One of my hens killed her first chick last year and one of my hens this year killed her first two. The first one was flung out of the nest box and the second was died because she wasn't sitting on it. She then hatched out three and abandoned the last one before it zipped all the way. She's young and it's her first brood, so I give her a bit of leaway. Currently she is co parenting her and another broodies babies. They have eight between them and are awesome together.

Is she getting all puffy and tucking the baby back under her when you get near? She should be clucking to the baby and looking after it if she has no other eggs to sit. Is she still setting eggs? She may ignore a chick if she is too focused on the eggs.

 

[Chickiemom25]

Quote:
Out of curiosity....what breed of chicken was she? Was it her first hatch?

She is 27 weeks old, americauna. First hatch.. She went broody after a month of laying and I couldnt get her to give up so I gave her 2 fertile eggs to break her of the broody behavior.

its been over 4 hours now and the chick periodically peeps from under momma. I think momma is beginning to understand.. She is tucking the little thing under her and cooing to it. too bad we lost the other chick. Hopefully this one will make it... I havent seen it in a few hours, just heard it peeping which I take is a good sign.

I dont want to take the chick away as that 1. defesats the purpose of the chick and 2. I dont have another to raise it with and 3. introducing a new bord to the flock is a pain in the tush I dont want to go through again.

 

[Chickiemom25]

Quote:
only eggs are the fresh ones the other girls lay daily and i pick up daily... for the next 2 days if the chick makes it, I will keep them seperated from the other 2 hens.. then take mom and chick back to the coop when I have some faith she has figured this out.