Please help!

[treereach]

Sorry for the alarmed first post. I read on here all the time but never signed up. Now I've got kind of a situation and I need help for these chicks.

So I have a couple chickens and a couple days ago I figured out that one of the hens is broody. They aren't really managed or messed with all that much. I got home tonight and went out to check on the animals and it looks like one of the eggs is hatching. She was sitting in kind of a bad spot, so I had to move her and the eggs (put them in the coop in a cardboard box with a piece of fabric along the bottom for warmth and so the eggs wouldn't roll while I was moving her).

So my question is, I have to leave early in the morning and since the hatch was unexpected, I have no chick food, only adult pellets. What can I put out that will hold them through till I can get home tomorrow night with chick food? I mean, stuff that will work but that people generally have around the house already? And is there anything else I need to do that will help ensure that as many as possible survive?

TIA for any help!

 

[ZooSD]

Just have food available for the hen. The chicks can go a day or two without while absorbing the rest of the yolk.

 

[alxw]

I always mix boiled eggs in with my baby crumbles for my new bitties. Just mash them up, show it to them and normally they devour it. I hear some people feed cooked white rice too. But when they are little I also like to mix a little sand in with their food so their crop can grind the food for them. I know new babies don't need food for a few days but within at least three hours of being born I like to get food and water in them. Its more of a security blanket for me more then them though feeding early before they get hungry a few days later is probably easier on their little bodies especially after the stress of breaking free from the egg.

 

[treereach]

Thanks so much you guys! I was so freaked out to see that egg hatching I just panicked. Thought I was going to have to go down and break in to the feed store in the middle of the night. I will get some starter feed on the way home and try not to worry about them all day tomorrow. We'll see how it goes, I guess. :/

 

[ZooSD]

So how's the baby? Did any more hatch?