Chick raising Diary! 🐣 First time raising babies, with a first-time broody-mother (cute chick photos incoming!)

[Ambera]

Hi,

I intend to use this as a little diary of my excitement raising chicks for the first time ever! I've kept chickens for well over 10 years now, but this is my first time with chicks! Please let me know if this isn't allowed, or if you're interested in following along!

Feel free to offer advice for my many questions along the way it's all a learning experience!

It's gotton to a sad state where I only have two hens, Lily - a white/silver sussex and Pepper - a speckly coloured Chalk Hill Blue hybrid. They're both around two years old. We're based in Somerset, UK - so the weather here is unpredictable!

Background

It was all down to Lily, who decided to go broody in late August.. I spent a week chucking her off the nest as usual, then my friend suggested putting some eggs under her. She just happened to have a cheeky bantam Pekin cockerel called Marcel, who was keeping his flock of 5 Lohmann hens very happy! Here are the parents of the eggs:

On 29th August, I slipped 6 eggs under Lily and let her brood for 3 weeks.... She was dedicated! Never leaving the nest, I had to lift her off so she would go eat/drink.

I pencilled numbers onto the eggs, though by week 3 these had long rubbed off!

I had my first chicken egg candling experience (I've candeled turtle eggs, but never chickens!), candling them on Days 7 and 10.
One egg sadly got smashed by Lily around Day 10, leaving a mess for me to clean in the nest box. Another two turned out to be infertile, so I removed them around Day 10, leaving us with just 3 eggs.

When I candled them for a final time on Day 17, I was excited as two looked to be on-track! One seemed to have stopped developing at some point, the embyro wasn't filling the egg and the embryo wouldn't move around as I moved the egg. I may have also seen a blood line but I wasn't sure? Candling is hard!

Finally Day 21 loomed... with not a peep from the nest, I was super nervous any would hatch!

 

[Ambera]

Tuesday 19th September 2023

Day 21 of incubation! Hatch day!

I was super excited, but the first check of the hen led to no joy.... Lily was brooding patiently, whilst Pepper - my other hen - was just sat outside of the nest box, giving morel support? Or just being nosy? She sat in there for most of the day!

Around 1pm I went to check and heard peeping from the Nest Box! Success!

One out of three of our remaining eggs had hatched, into this floofy black ball of cuteness! They were already fluffed up and dry, so after a quick peek and photo, I left them underneath mum. They are black, with a white bib and white bum, with a floofy pale belly! Very adorable. Apparently they shouldnt' have turned out black with chicken genetics - but apparently genetics took a field day for this chick?

I decided to name them Nugget, as I'm suspicious of them being a cockeral with such a large comb already at hatch....

At this point I barricaded off the nest box, as I didn't want Pepper getting involved and trying to eat eggs/fluids/chicks etc! She was already dodging the line by pecking at the leftover eggshell that got outside of the box somehow....

Sadly the rest of the day was uneventful, even with me checking on them every hour... No new chicks...

 

[Ambera]

Wednesday 20th September 2023

The remnants of Hurricane Nigel set in today.... and it was BAD. 50mph wind gusts, steady 20mph+ wind and heavy outbursts of rain - bringing almost two months worth of rain in places! Lots of Somerset flooded, with roads underwater, holiday places like Butlins flooded out and trees down all over.

I decided to keep Lily in the nest box today for this reason, even though I have prepared a run for her and the chick.
The prepared run has hardware cloth mesh - unlike our main chicken run. This includes hardware cloth on the flooring too, which stops anything digging in but I fear it may be cold on the little chick feet!
I feel I can't just let Lily and the chick have free rein of the normal run, as the chick will escape at some point and not be able to find its way back in! So the run I've prepared has a cat carrier filled with straw and shavings, and I've put it on some foam to try and insolate it from the ground... I'm not happy that it will be warm enough though yet as the nights are cold at the moment. I've got my chick drinker and feeder set up too, with chick crumb.

Instead, for today I put the chick crumb and some water in two small bowls in the coop nest box, and kept it barricaded from nosy Pepper! Pepper spent most the day inside again, she gets lonely out there by herself and also it was so windy the run was almost taking off and the rain was coming in sideways! I don't blame her. She sat on the shavings on the floor of the main coop.

I watched in awe as Lily started teaching Nugget to drink and to eat! I love how she would pick up food and then drop it repeatably, whilst making an urgent boopboopboop noise. She just had to make that noise, the "here's some food, come eat it!" noise, and the chick would come running out from underneath her and start pecking at her beak! Too cute to watch, I spent the day getting SOAKED sat next to the nestbox (with the lid up!) and watching chick TV!


Sadly no new chicks again... she is sat on two still. I removed the undeveloped one, just leaving the one which was mostly filled with chick.

 

[Ambera]

Thursday 21st September 2023

I kept the both of them in the nest box overnight, then at around midday I thought I'd try them in the run I'd prepared!

At first they seemed very spooked, I just picked them both up and put them in the run next to the cat carrier box. Lily was quick to excrete ... quite a lot.... that she had saved up whilst sitting on the nest! Meanwhile, Nugget looked scared and ran to a dark corner, peeping away.

I thought this isnt' working, so tried then putting Lily and Nugget in the cat carrier nest box, and put a towel over the door so they would calm down. Thankfully they did settle, phew! I had also snuck the last viable egg in under her, so she happily sat.

And sat.

And sat.

For the rest of the day, she would not move from that new nest box! I think she is still in broody mode, trying to hatch the last egg. I had the door open so she could come and go, but she stayed put on the straw.

Nugget took great delight in jumping up and down in and out of the carrier and exploring the space right in front of mum. I moved the chick crumb and water closer so that Lily could drink and eat, so she encouraged Nug to eat too. Unfortunately she is already teaching her chick bad habits!!! She will happily pickup and drop corn repeatably and teach Nug just how great this treat is, so that Nug just seeks out corn all the time! I made the mistake of giving her some corn in the nest box, which she just spilt on purpose into the hay so she could find it and feed it to Nugget! At least they both eat chick crumb too, but I'm worried they don't get enough....

At around 4pm I moved them back into the nest box for the evening... as I had grand plans!

I don't think the last egg will hatch at all, and I can't bear seeing Nugget looking so lonely. We've gone to all this effort, it would be nice to get a hen out of it by the end!

So I hatched a plan to source a couple more chicks... I drove around 40 minutes at 6pm to pick up two more chicks! A lady was selling some chicks she had hatched from an incubator. She initially only offered 5-day old brahmas, which I just had to turn down as they would be too big with my chick!! She then offered two 5-day old Pekins, which sounded much better!

• 1 Lavender Cuckoo Pekin
• 1 Colombian Pekin

I know I'm taking a huge risk with 5-day olds, but there is no other choices around. I've looked! They were hatched on Saturday 16th Sept, 3 days before mine hatched on Tuesday 19th. Luckily they are still tiny, the same size or even smaller that Nugget (who is a half Pekin hybrid with a full size!).

They were cheeping most of the way home, except for the last terrifying 10 minutes! I got them home around 8pm, and let them have some water and chick crumb before taking them up to the hen pen! They were cheeping the whole way!

I slipped them under Lily in the nest box in complete darkness, removed the last egg I have given up on, shut the lid and listened. There was a bit of her bopbopbopping at the new chicks, and lots of cheeping, until it settled and went quiet..... A quick peek under the lid confirmed that they are under her!

Now I need to wake up early tomorrow to check on them and watch them for the first hours! Fingers crossed aaaaaaaa... I'm not naming them yet!

Chicks: 3!
Nugget Age: 2 days
Pekins Age: 5 days
Highest daytime temperature: 16c (60f)
Overnight lowest outside temperature: 8c (46f)

 

[GreenJay]

They're very cute Lily is a happy momma.
Hope they all do well!

 

[Macaw]

there so cute its giving flashbacks to when I raised my chicks

 

[Ambera]

Friday 22nd September 2023

Introducing 5-day-old bantam chicks!!
Thank you for the replies, hope you like reading or just looking at the cute pics! ^^

I was up at the first signs of daylight to check on the new chicks! It was freezing, almost felt like frost was on the dewy ground, I had at least 4 layers and 2 blankets on!

I opened the nest box and breathed a sigh of relief that there weren't two dead chicks scattered around! I had put some eggshell in the box last night to try and fool her that her last egg hatched, so she pecked at that a bit.
All 3 chicks were under Lily. I sat for about an hour and just watched Nugget come and go from under her, eating food. Lily was fussing over Nug and showing them food, she looked very content.

After an hour I just had to know, so I found the yellow chick and placed them in the food bowl. Instant silence from Lily as she just STARED. There was a sort of face-off between Lily, Nugget and the new yellow chick. Lily made the sort of "new thing" noise, brrrrbh brrrrh at the chick and got up close and personal in their face!

Luckily, there was no pecking. She just stared. The chick had some crumbs then I put it back under Lily, and just let her sit and process what had happened.

About 10 minutes later I brought both the new chicks out and let them eat. Lily didn't really show much interest, just ignored them whilst they ate. I was just happy she didn't kill them!
By this point I'd been out for two hours, so I was confident she wouldn't murder them - I went and had a cat nap to warm up!

At around 11am I went back up, praying that all was well. It was! Nugget and the lavender chick were out eating. I noticed that the Lavender chick seems to have bonded with their new mama! They were pecking Lily's beak, staring up at her face and then floofed up and snuggled under her breast <3 It seems to have worked!

Then the yellow chick came out, they weren't so keen on mama. They just cheeped and acted a bit lost, while Lily sort of ignored them... seems this one hasn't bonded yet. They couldn't work out that they needed to snuggle under Lily to get warm again, so I showed them a couple of times....

I noticed the yellow chick was doing some weird head movements after drinking - it was drinking a lot and not eating at the time. It was sort of gaping, but not really? It had just woken up at the time if that matters? I saw it crawl out all disheaveled, bleary eyes, stretch and yawn. Anyone know what this is/if this is okay? See the video:

.

I checked them all for pasty butt, all good (especially after their stressful car ride yesterday!).

Lily definetly still cares about Nugget more than the others, getting more stressed when I hold them or take them out of sight. She also calls Nug to food all the time, which I haven't see her do with the others yet. It's nice to see the lavender chick look to Lily as mum though, especially as they spent 5 days in an incubator with lots of massive Brahma chicks!!

Before I left I did see the yellow chick try to snuggle into Lily's wing, so I feel they will get the hang of going back to mum when cold! That's all I want really - if Lily doesn't bond with them completly that's fine, as long as she lets them snuggle under her AND they return to her when they are cold then I am happy!

Lily STILL won't leave the nest or stand up by herself! She has barely eaten or drank, and she pooped in the nest again when I introduced the new chicks (she literally s*** herself at seeing them!)... If I give her corn, she just gives it to Nugget. I've managed to get some dandelion leaves down her, and she nibbles on the chick crumb but I'm getting worried soon!

 

[The Welch Chickens]

How cute! Great thread; nice pictures and very well written. I'm following the thread if tht's ok with you, @Ambera.

Lily STILL won't leave the nest or stand up by herself! She has barely eaten or drank, and she pooped in the nest again when I introduced the new chicks (she literally s*** herself at seeing them!)... If I give her corn, she just gives it to Nugget. I've managed to get some dandelion leaves down her, and she nibbles on the chick crumb but I'm getting worried soon!

Oh no! I hope she perks up soon!

 

[The Welch Chickens]

I noticed the yellow chick was doing some weird head movements after drinking - it was drinking a lot and not eating at the time. It was sort of gaping, but not really? It had just woken up at the time if that matters? I saw it crawl out all disheaveled, bleary eyes, stretch and yawn. Anyone know what this is/if this is okay? See the video:

Our chicks sometimes would do strange head movements, after drinking and just randomly. At first it made me a bit nervous (new chicken mama, I was always nervous lol) but I think they were just figuring out how to swallow or maybe adjusting their crops.

@nuthatched? @sourland? What do you guys think?

 

[Ambera]

Friday 22nd September 2023 - Part II

@The Welch Chickens welcome! hope you enjoy

I got them out in the run this afternoon!
Lily finally had a walk around, a stretch and a chance to sunbath for the first time in almost 4 weeks! It will have been the two new chicks first time outdoors properly, where they could see the rain showers outside the run, and see the sun!
Lily settled on some straw and brooded over the chicks for an hour or so, keeping them warm whilst they darted out to get food and water.

Then she took them on a little explore of the run, showing them the little sandpit (she tried to get in, but sadly it's a tad small for her to dustbath in!). Lily had a flap and sent the two little ones flying, literally!! Looks like she is starting to go through the Broody Moult, a few stray feathers sticking up everywhere today!
The sun finally came out for a few hours, so she sunbathed on the run floor with the chicks either underneath or in front of her. She was much happier when I put some hay down for the chicks to sit on - the wire mesh floor can't be very comfy or warm!

All are eating, drinking and pooping well! The yellow one is still gaping a bit when drinking but hopefully it will sort itself out, thanks for the tip!...
She still hasn't bonded that much with the yellow one, she has a preferential order of Nugget...(a large gap)..... then lavender...... then the yellow. If she's gonna walk and mow one of them down, it will be the yellow!

The lavender has bonded well, it will come running when being shown food and loves snuggling up to her new mum. It's also the most flighty and was trying their best to jump on her back earlier!

Lots of cute pictures from the run today!

I've popped them back in the nestbox for the night as it will be cold again, and barricaded them in yet again (as Lily was trying to nest with them on the floor under the perch - where Pepper will poop on them!). I've ordered this small wooden coop of Amazon, which will arrive tomorrow. Hopefully they can then live in that in the outdoor run! (Really hoping Lily takes to it and manages to lead them up the ramp to bed in the evenings!).

Nugget Age: 3 days
Pekins Age: 6 days
Highest daytime temperature: 15c (59f)
Overnight lowest outside temperature tonight: 8c (46f)