Any news? very interested as my Silkie X is sitting on her first clutch, also my first time with hatchlings. They are due next Friday...
Yes, there's news! The update is that the one little hatched Barnevelder chick was doing great, and quite big, and so after about 20 hours, we added the 5 4&5 day olds bought chicks. (No other eggs hatched either.)
We put them under the hen late at night, from behind, in the dark. She accepted them all. Mum hen seemed completely nonplussed. I hung around, checking them several times for an hour. All seemed well.
In the very early morning, they were all still snuggled under her. An hour later they slowly emerged, including the newly hatched chick. All fed and drank, contentedly peeping, while mum looked on and had a bite too! Very sweet.
No bullying of the hatched chick by the older chicks either, thank goodness.
The only thing the incubated & heatlamp warmed older chicks are still learning, is how to get under mum. A few of them try to get on top of her to get warm, instead of under... So I've kept an close eye out today and showed them how repeatedly. Very funny. Over the course of the day, they slowly got it.
Only one chick, the largest one, finds it tricky still. Probably the oldest, finding it hard to adjust to a hen instead of a heatlamp. That one sort of just climbs on top of mum, kind of tumbles down and then, sometimes, lands in the warm gap between mum's wing and body - from above!
Definitely still a work in progress.
Thank you so much for your help everyone! Both the hen and chicks are doing great.
