Traumatized Chick (Storytime)

[RedBreasted]

Before I'll get started, I am unsure of which subforum this belongs to so I'll post it here. Also, if you're the type of person that gets "triggered" by these posts, please feel free to leave this thread. I want to keep things "civil" here.

I got 2 new chicks, one Amber White (Amber), and one Easter Egger (Toothless) on the week of March 22.

On Saturday, April 20th, our Easter Egger chick got killed by our neighbors' dog. The dog dugged a hole small enough for a little chick to crawl under. I let the 2 chicks out that day because it was a beautiful day, in the 80 degrees Fahrenheit, all clear. I did not spot the hole before, it looks like it was just recently made.

And so when I was inside, I heard a loud chick screech so I rushed to my backyard and saw the dead carcass of what's left of Toothless. I quickly put Amber back into the brooder and filled up the hole and something heavy on top of it.

After Saturday, I realized some of the mistakes I've made; not having a fenced playpen for the chicks. So from now on, there's gonna be some changes; I'm now inspecting my backyard twice a week for anything chicks or chickens can escape to, building a run for the coop, and not releasing chicks into the coop until they're at least 10-11 weeks old because I don't want this to happened again.

Amber is doing alright now. She is extremely traumatized from what she saw happened to her friend. Every time I open the backyard door to go feed the other hens, she keeps rushing back inside the house. I have another batch of 4 chicks and don't have another large enough brooder for her. On Monday night, she escaped through another hole. Turns out she went and roosted on top of a bucket on our front porch. Filled that hole again. She also tries to fly above and goes around me that sometimes its hard for me to walk around.

If you guys have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, let me know! Even though I raised my first 2 chicks back in 2014, I'm still pretty much a newbie. I'm thinking of once I get the run up and running, I should lock all my chickens in there and not have them free roam around the backyard.

 

[danceswithronin]

Do you clip your birds' wings? You might have to worry less about them trying to evade you by flying or escaping your yard and ending up in somebody else's (like the dog folks). If you Google "how to clip a chicken's wing" there's tons of tutorials that will show you step-by-step how to do it.

Also, I'd get some hardware cloth and go around your entire fence and bury it about six inches deep all the way around, leaving a bottom skirt of about six inches or so lying flush with the fence. This will be a pain in the ass to do weekend project. But this will keep stuff from digging into your yard, and will keep the chickens from being able to dig out should they feel weirdly compelled to do that. But it'll also prevent them from slipping through gaps in your fence too.

 

[RedBreasted]

Do you clip your birds' wings? You might have to worry less about them trying to evade you by flying or escaping your yard and ending up in somebody else's (like the dog folks). If you Google "how to clip a chicken's wing" there's tons of tutorials that will show you step-by-step how to do it.

Also, I'd get some hardware cloth and go around your entire fence and bury it about six inches deep all the way around, leaving a bottom skirt of about six inches or so lying flush with the fence. This will be a pain in the ass to do weekend project. But this will keep stuff from digging into your yard, and will keep the chickens from being able to dig out should they feel weirdly compelled to do that. But it'll also prevent them from slipping through gaps in your fence too.

Yup, I have clipped their wings in the past. It grown back again (duh) but they don’t fly on top of the fence anymore. Probably last time I saw one of my hens escaping/flying out of the fence was 2 years ago. Now they just stick around in the backyard.

Also the Amber White chick wasn’t evading me, sorry to make that sound confusing. She just likes to go near me because I’m thinking she’s scared from what she saw in the incident.

Thank you for your suggestion about the hardware cloth. I’ll be looking into that.

 

[Fishkeeper]

The best thing you can do is to keep having nothing bad happen. Give her hiding places, and company if you can, but keep her outside. Eventually she'll stop associating outdoors with the bad thing. Maybe try giving her treats, try to build the association of "this is good, this is where food is"?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Make sure to clip just one wing if you do both they can still fly Hardware cloth is the best6 way to ensure safety

 

[jsr5]

could be the integration with the other birds is more the problem and she wants back in where she is safe from them. But they do have a brief trauma period I have noticed when we have lost birds to predators they will kinda stay in the run and close to the coop for a day or two. that trauma and the older birds normal setting of pecking order all at once plus if the trauma has her jumping at her shadow the other birds will be merciless. might just need to work on the integration maybe separate the worst bullies out for a while (I know you are already at a loss of places to put em all) Do you have a way to cover the brooder and if so does amber pick on the new babies? might try letting her stay with them and then integrate all of them together so no one has to to it alone maybe. It is things like this that prompted my building of the delux three tiered super duper condo brooder that resides in the garage it is coplete with heat lamps and winter cover. I ought to take really good pics of it and maybe a article anyway I don't know what else to suggest.

 

[AJKinville]

I was going to suggest putting Amber White in with the little ones and reintroducing them all when the littlest ones are ready when they new coop is ready I find a new setting with newcomers makes it where nobody rules that roost yet just have a pecking order within each individual flock. I integrated my two flicks of 8 wk olds with my 6.5 wk olds at 3.5-5 wks they are together now but now I introduce a flock of 4 3.5 wk olds today they’ve been chatting back nd forth from their cages for some time now but couldn’t see each other like the other 6 could for a wk before integration but I changed up the run added more vertical space and hiding places. What I mean is if it’s a new space nobody is territorial. The stay separate flicks for a bit which was probably what Amber white and Toothless where doing sticking together until they became an accepted part of the flock. I think you’ve gotten some great advice and have good chick mom intuition! Good luck!