So, I woke up this morning and went to the coop to let the chickens out and freshen my broodys food and water. As I'm putting her things back into her cage, I hear this very loud peeping. My broodys chicks weren't supposed to hatch until this Sunday
so I start searching everywhere for this rebel chick who decided to hatch early. Nothing. I go back to the cage and start checking eggs and find one pipped that's just faintly peeping and another that isn't pipped but peeping frantically. None of the other eggs were making any noise, but they felt like the could have chicks in them
Anyhoo- I brought the eggs inside and started picking the shell off of them. Those poor babies were completely stuck in the membrane and one of them was so big it looked like it shouldn't have fit in the egg it came from. So after much careful picking I now have two very unexpected chicks in my brooder that I'm completely unprepared for. The only reason I even had the brooder set up is because I'm expecting chicks from McMurray on Monday. I hadn't picked up my chick starter yet. But I do have plenty of eggs. Would they be okay on just egg until tomorrow? And if I do feed them the egg, will they need any grit? I've never had chicks hatch out this early before, and thought I had crossed my t's and dotted my i's, they caught me completely off guard. Any advice would be greatly appriciated. Thanks.
