- Jan 28, 2019
- 38
- 73
- 104
Hello, with our layers growing older, we decided to order a few live chicks this year to continue the cycle.
We ordered 3 rainbow layers (no breed specified, but I am pretty sure what we got are easter eggers/ameraucanas), 3 buff orpingtons (a favorite of ours), and since we were already paying for hefty live shipping, we decided to also purchase 3 silver polish who will be more pets than anything.
They shipped on the 20th of February. We received them on the 22nd. On arrival, there were eleven chicks- they had added two extras. Two were already dead, unfortunately- one polish, one buff. Two of the three remaining polish were doing poorly- very listless, having a hard time staying upright, ect.
We went to work straight away on trying to perk them all up. We got each chick to drink, introduced some wet chick starter and got them each to eat a tiny bit, and put them in the brooder to warm. All but the two poorly polish were up and active in no time, happily snuggled up beneath the brooder. The polish babes did go under, but in the morning, we found one had passed, and the other was still so weak that the other, more active chicks were stepping on the remaining tiny polish.
This is where you come in. We have removed the weak polish chick, put them into a smaller brooder with food, water, and set up a heat lamp instead of a heated brooder. We gave them some nutridrench directly, and put a bit in the water (we also put some in the healthy chickadees water to hopefully prevent further losses.)
It's been a while since we had wee ones- and our last batch of babies were hen hatched. We also have an incubator on day 22 of incubation of show silkies that we are concerned about the lack of pipping, but we don't want to break lockdown yet. That's another story.. anywho!
Any advice on how to aid this little babe is most welcome. We want to do anything we can to help them make it. They are an absolute darling. Here is the struggling angel in question:
The remaining polish besides this baby is doing well, and is funnily enough, smaller than the one we lost, and the one we are trying to keep going. Funny how that works..
We ordered 3 rainbow layers (no breed specified, but I am pretty sure what we got are easter eggers/ameraucanas), 3 buff orpingtons (a favorite of ours), and since we were already paying for hefty live shipping, we decided to also purchase 3 silver polish who will be more pets than anything.
They shipped on the 20th of February. We received them on the 22nd. On arrival, there were eleven chicks- they had added two extras. Two were already dead, unfortunately- one polish, one buff. Two of the three remaining polish were doing poorly- very listless, having a hard time staying upright, ect.
We went to work straight away on trying to perk them all up. We got each chick to drink, introduced some wet chick starter and got them each to eat a tiny bit, and put them in the brooder to warm. All but the two poorly polish were up and active in no time, happily snuggled up beneath the brooder. The polish babes did go under, but in the morning, we found one had passed, and the other was still so weak that the other, more active chicks were stepping on the remaining tiny polish.
This is where you come in. We have removed the weak polish chick, put them into a smaller brooder with food, water, and set up a heat lamp instead of a heated brooder. We gave them some nutridrench directly, and put a bit in the water (we also put some in the healthy chickadees water to hopefully prevent further losses.)
It's been a while since we had wee ones- and our last batch of babies were hen hatched. We also have an incubator on day 22 of incubation of show silkies that we are concerned about the lack of pipping, but we don't want to break lockdown yet. That's another story.. anywho!
Any advice on how to aid this little babe is most welcome. We want to do anything we can to help them make it. They are an absolute darling. Here is the struggling angel in question:
The remaining polish besides this baby is doing well, and is funnily enough, smaller than the one we lost, and the one we are trying to keep going. Funny how that works..
