RETURN TO THE FLOCK BY AWOL MEMBER

[Bluewater]

I made a couple of videos of the affected chicks. I'm not sure of the solution (cull?). Wife says let nature take it's course. As long as they are eating and drinking & not in any distress. And she is an RN so I guess that's the plan. No luck loading video; i'll retry later.

 

[Counting chickens]

Welcome Back!

 

[rjohns39]

I made a couple of videos of the affected chicks. I'm not sure of the solution (cull?). Wife says let nature take it's course. As long as they are eating and drinking & not in any distress. And she is an RN so I guess that's the plan. No luck loading video; i'll retry later.

Load your video to youtube first then past the link here.

 

[Bluewater]

Yesterday morning, I found another chick deceased. It was not from the previously mentioned affected three. So now I have three "healthy" and three with problems.

 

[Bluewater]

I loaded my videos on YouTube (Thank You, rjohns39 for the suggestion) - took awhile. I'm not too familiar with the inner sanctum of my computer.So now I'll try to post the url here on BTC
One video disappeared but I think this one covers most of the problem chicks.

 

[Bluewater]

Okay - Here's the other video (I thought an 0 was an O so my URL didn't compute (pardon the lame pun). So here's my poor lame chicks.

 

[Bluewater]

I've been thinking about my problems with my chicks. Originally, I had three with splayed legs. After splinting effort, one was successfully rehabilitated and I placed him back in the flock. I'm wondering if he was the latest one that died. May of had other unobserved problems? I'm going to try one more hatch for Easter; I believe the incubator is functioning as it should (just bad luck with the fan motor stall and overheat. Then the power failure from the utility - Pacific Gas & Electric). They say the third time is the charm.

 

[Bluewater]

Well, here is the outcome with my chicks. There are no survivors. I had only three left and something (predator) killed them and only ate one of them. The three with difficulties I culled previously, after it became obvious that their quality of life was just a struggle with no possibility of it improving. The one with the kinked neck couldn't eat or drink and just backed around in circles. The ones with splayed legs just couldn't walk and were unable to sustain themselves. (I even tried making a sort of wagon with a cut down plastic milk carton and set of wheels and velcro straps, but they still couldn't move with any success because of their leg positions). I think the lesson here is to cull sooner and avoid all the struggles.
Where I'm located (rural Northern California), there are plenty of wild animals; my neighbor about a quarter of a mile away, saw a mountain lion a few weeks ago. I have a very solid, secure chicken house but I don't have a covered pen. There are plenty of critters that can climb over my fence. Before I put any more chickens out there, I'm going to fully enclose it.