The things with having chooks, is those chooks (if you’ve got a rooster) eventually have babies.
And baby chickens, as tough as they are, sometimes they don’t do so well.
A week ago, one of my hens hatched some chickens. Once I braved her attacks (she’s fucking vicious! I ended up with bruises everywhere) and took her off the nest to count chicks, I found a dead chicken in the bottom of the nest. Perfectly formed, hatched and squashed. Another chicken didn’t make it all the way out of it’s shell, dying at the finish post.
However, we had 5 live chickens, even if one was a bit iffy. I figured I’d keep an eye on it, and left the mother to her angry clucking.
An hour later, I scooted her off the nest and found the iffy chicken was doing even worse. Younger by almost a full day to it’s siblings, it kept getting squashed and left behind and frankly, the poor thing was half dead and exhausted.
So into my pocket it came and inside for a few hours.
I dripped some sugar water into it’s beak for energy and then tucked it into a nest of tissues with a hot water bottle underneath it for warmth.
It slept for a few hours – after hatching, chickens are exhausted. This little one because it was younger than the rest, wasn’t getting a chance to sleep because it’s siblings wanted to peck and move about. It wasn’t able to walk yet and needed a break. The sugar water and time inside gave it some strength and the warmth and peace enabled it to recuperate.
And while I was hopeful it would survive, nothing is ever certain.
A few hours later, right on dark, I put the chicken back with it’s mother – okay, so I practically threw the chicken at it’s mother, while she tried to attack my hand – and I hoped it would make it through the night.
It did and a week later, we still have the five chicks we had the first day.
The hawks are hanging around and I’ve seen more kookaburras in the last week than I have in the last year, but they haven’t stolen a chicken yet. The mother hen is doing a good job and hasn’t taken the babies out into the open much, staying near cover amongst the stables, chook pen and blackberry bush.
They’re pretty cute though.
These chicks are our next generation. The hens will be kept for eggs and any roosters will eaten (like the egg eating chook from a while back).
I love that at a week old, they’re already getting their feathers. I’m hoping the little stripy one is a hen, because isn’t the patterning gorgeous?
Third from the left is the little chicken that would have died. It hasn’t gotten any adult feathers yet.
They’re pretty cute. Amy is a big fan. So are the cats – although the way the mother hen attacked our tom cat this morning, I don’t think he’ll be contemplating a chicken dinner any time soon.
Well done on the chooken save!
Good luck with the hawks and Kookas 😉
Great Job saving the chook! Was that the first time?
I would imagine the Chicken would be delicious once cooked fresh!
Oh I remember doing the same, but with ducks. Mum rescuing them from the cold and using a hairdryer to warm them up. Feeling like a hero when putting them back with the rest after almost certain death.
gorgeous chicks!!!
We have a hen sitting at the moment too… it really is a life lesson, with all the not so fun bits of life included!
there so so cute
Kelly – no, haha. Not the first time at all. We always had chooks when I was a kid and we were forever bringing inside half drowned chickens, or frozen ones, or ones that just weren’t doing so well.
When I was 10, our dog got hold of a 1/2 grown chicken and dragged it around the yard, in the freezing rain until it was practically dead. I begged to be allowed to save it and sat with it snuggled into my body warmth with a hot water bottle, this frozen bundle of feathers for hours.
It came back to life and went outside with the other chooks again the next day. Chooks are tough.
We also babied a chick that had nearly been pecked to death back to life – the kindergarten class had hatched eggs and 2-3 were the bottom of the pecking order and nearly were pecked to bits. 2 of my friends and I took home a chick each. My chick grew up thinking he was a dog, he used to ride on the handlebars of my bike with me.
hehe that chicken that thought it was a dog was “Oscar the Super Chook.” 🙂
is there a pic of all the 5 chickens?
how is Maisie going?
Taz – no, they tend to stay on either side of their mum. I was aiming for good shots as they ran, so missed a headcount.
Aww bless, glad you managed to save it! 🙂 xx
Awww
Nice save Veronica.
Nice save. We recently got chicks and two died – they seemed fine at night but were dead the next morning. One had an injured leg and we kept putting it next to the food and it seems fine now. It is significantly smaller than the others but is walking around with no problems. We’re not supposed to have any roosters so it won’t be something we’ll do again in a hurry, but I can’t wait to see how they go – I’ve never had chooks before.
This so so SO makes me miss my little chicks 🙁 We’ve hand-raised several flocks, but the last couple of times, they ended up succumbing to predators as pullets, so we’ve decided to take a break from being chicken owners. But every time I see little babies, I long for my sweet hens and my fresh eggs.
Pretty effing adorable. Well done with the little one.
Ok here you again, just posting about them all and to add insult to injury adding adorable photo’s. I am off to sulk about having no room for chickens. Husband gets to tend other people’s so he doesn’t understand my angst. So for the meantime Veronica, I am sulking. Can you hear the silence? ……….
You’re a lifesaver! Well done.
The chickies are so very cute, I love babies.
Sooooooooo cute. That stripey one is beautiful!
Interesting post. Beautiful photos. Thanks for this.
All the best, Boonie
Lovely!! We had chickens growing up, about 15 that we kept for eggs and then periodically my parents would ‘take in’ chicks for a local farmer and grow them up. I adopted a tiny, broken chick and nursed it back to health. I was promised that I’d be able to keep it as a pet, and we dyed it with food coloring (haha) to distuingish it from its brothers and sisters. Except one morning I came home from school to the horror of an empty chook area. EMPTY. No one had bloody told the people collecting the chickens that the one with the BLUE feathers was not to be taken away.
Traumatic.
@Arienette– sorry to be blunt, but seriously— how stupid were the people collecting the chickens? They couldn’t even bother to ask? Ugh. Poor you! THat had to have been awful!
V— I had to laugh at this story. It would have been so much more heartwarming if I hadn’t known that one day there’s a decent chance you’re going to look at this chicken and think… “MMMMMmmm. Yum.” 🙂 (PS: I’m envious. I can’t wait to get some land and have my own chickens.)
Awww too cute. We got an email from my brother yesterday, he’s just gotten two chickens and wanted my girls help naming them. Have had much requests to get chickens since 🙂
too cute I can’t wait till we move and get chickens. We just feed our neighbours over the front fence for now !
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