- Jun 20, 2010
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So one of my broodies refused to be moved, and hatched ( is still hatching at this moment) eggs in a nest in the coop. The nest only has a low back. Last night I was outside in a driving rain because wind had blown the tarp off a small coop I use as a broody house, where there was a hen and 7 two day old chicks. I was struggling to pull the wet tarp back up over the little coop, and also to cover the electric connections and reset the ? Thingy, so the heating pad and light would go back on. As I did this I heard a chick distress call. I looked into the little coop, no issue there. I lifted up mom, all 7 chicks there. I went over to where I have 19 older chicks I raised in incubator and brooder, not sure how old but you can just see the cockerels beginning to develop their comb. I found a leak there, around the wire to the light, despite two layers of aluminum roofing and two tarps. I added a sheet of plastic roofing, weighed it down with rocks, changed out the wet wood shavings. By now I am drenched through my raincoat. All this time I am intermittently hearing the chick distress call and running between the two small coops, checking the floor in the large coop and covered run, and finding nothing. Finally the rain let up a little bit and I was able to follow the sound with my flashlight. And there was a tiny chick, utterly bedraggled, 40’ from the main coop, over a yard that had 3” deep puddles. I picked it up, ran for the house, dried it with a washcloth and then my hair dryer on low. Then I took it out to the hen hatching in the main coop, tucked it under, went inside, dried off and lay down to go to sleep. My husband was out on our covered deck enjoying the sound of the rain- and he heard a chick and came to get me. I put on my wet raincoat and went out and found the same chick outside the coop 20 feet from the nest, caught in some one inch chicken wire around the bottom of the covered run. I gently extracted it and called on hubby, who after grumbling, figured our a way to block the back of the nest completely. So the adventurous chick is confined, with 7 nestmates, and last I looked two pipped and one tap tap tapping. When all are hatched we will move mom and chicks to a large plastic dog crate.
But it is amazing that that chick was out there in a driving rain for at least half an hour before I found him, and who knows how long before, and survived without any adverse effects. Of course had I not gone outside to replace that tarp he’d have been a goner. I resolve to try not to let hens brood in the coop but some are very stubborn!
But it is amazing that that chick was out there in a driving rain for at least half an hour before I found him, and who knows how long before, and survived without any adverse effects. Of course had I not gone outside to replace that tarp he’d have been a goner. I resolve to try not to let hens brood in the coop but some are very stubborn!
