Learn from my mistake

10 p.m. and she's still alive.

SALT! Of course!

Yep, Bill, they are Buff Orpingtons. Blonde as can be.

We've just had our first and LAST batch of Cornish crosses for just this reason. We raised a dozen alongside some "regular" chicks, and the comparison made very clear how awkward, unwieldy, and unfortunate these creatures are. It was heartbreaking when they tried to act like chickens, but were physically unable to do so (couldn't fly up to a roost, couldn't dart around, couldn't keep from collapsing under their own weight every few steps). The meat is beautiful, but the animal's "life experience" just isn't worth it for us.

Given that the crosses are the product of assisted reproduction (and for obvious reasons, once you've seen them in action), we've decided to go to a basic F*&$ test for our potential livestock: if it cannot reproduce entirely on its own, without help (or be produced, in the case of mules), then we don't want any part of it.

I just tried that and all I saw was a bunch of grey chest hair and a bunch of surgical stars....I think my biggest mistake today was opening my shirt and looking in the mirror!

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Aaack! I just moved some chicks and turkeys to different pens with different waterers last night. They're 2-3 weeks old, but the turkeys were all looking at me strangely in their new pen. Thanks! I'm off to check on them!

ETA: All is well, except they pooped in both.

"it means you are SUPPERMAN"

I've been SUPPER(Wo)MAN for 25 + years and I'm ready to let someone else cook!

Speaking of blondes,

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The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring. ~Bern Williams

I had some chickens once that could not figure out how to drink from the founts. I thought it would be better and so we put in the system and never could teach them so had to put in waterers. I love my chickens but I like for the hens to do the work of raising them. I have a white jersey giant setting right now. I was somewhat surprised when DH told me she was setting. I keep banties for setting. I just put the larger eggs under them(less than usual) and they do all the work. Hope your chick makes it. I always give electrolytes to my chicks and older ones also if they are stressed.

"Send my lawn out to be mowed"

Sweetbabyjane, DH is on a business phone call using speaker phone in the next room (he usually works from home). I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing so loud that his client could hear me. That is so good!

rharper, quality of life means far more than quantity in my book. Those Cornish crosses are pitiful.

UPDATE ON CHICK:
I had to go to Columbia this morning and fed her before I left, maybe around 9. She was pecking at my finger to get bits of oatmeal but mostly I was smearing it on the side of her beak. Just now, she was actually pecking the bits! She still can't hold herself upright for long or stand but her head is up and her eyes bright. I mixed some Redmond salt into water until it was slightly less salty than tears and I dribble it into her beak with an eyedropper, only as much a she will swallow easily. I'm not force feeding her either water or oatmeal. She has defecated too. Progress? I hope so.

DH asked if I were going to mark her in some way if she's able to go back into the outdoor brooder. I told him I surely was.

I know it's probably going to doom this little critter but I've named her Grace the Amazing.

You made an excellent point.

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Those are the ones you invite to dinner first. At this stage of the game, this chick is an experiment. She's getting some control of her legs back. I haven't set a deadline for her "recovery," just waiting to see how things develop.

I am so glad your little chick is getting stronger.

How many waterers did you have out. For a doz I would have had 2 quart jars with the fonts onto them.

Bill, I had two of the quart jar on the galvanized metal dealies in the brooder for 10 chicks. Saturday afternoon, after DH brought home the fount they were accustomed to using at the farm store, I put it in the brooder but left the quart jar waterers as well. I have two little feeders, one orange, one red, for their starter feed that I trade off at each chore time. They actually backed off from the different color until one brave chick started eating.

Last night I put Grace the Amazing into a small animal cage with a nearby heat lamp. She had two jar lids with water, one with the oatmeal-hard cooked egg I'd been feeding on my fingertip, one with regular chick starter plus some starter scattered on the paper in the bottom of this cage. This morning, she's keeping herself on "an even keel" rather than flopping onto one side and scooting from water dish to oatmeal dish. She's cleaned up most of the loose starter and she's still defecating. I've seen her drink and eat the oatmeal-egg mixture but only when I just happened to check on her and found her in another spot. I don't know how she's moving from one spot to another. I haven't seen her stand but she does keep her feet under herself. Once I see her actually walking, I'll take her back to the barn and her sisters but I'll watch to be sure she can withstand the competition and to be sure she recognizes the feed sources in the brooder. Yesterday I pulled a big handful of white clover for these babies and they cleaned it up during the day.

Okay, last post about Grace the Amazing. I brought two chicks in from the barn brooder to see if they would induce GtA to move around more. They did and while she still flops a bit, she can keep up with them. They form their own little flock in their cage, sleeping and eating together. I'll probably take all 3 back to the barn brooder tomorrow. I want to be sure the other chicks won't see her as weak and pick on her. I also thought that since there were 3 "new" birds, any aggression would be spread out rather than focused on GtA.

The one thing I didn't mention was that I sprinkled coarse sand on the oatmeal/egg mixture to give her some grit in her gizzard. That's SOP when I'm raising chicks--just forgot to list it when I related what I've done in trying to save her.

Thanks for all the support and encouragement.

Two months out and all 13 chicks are growing well. I marked the tips of Grace's wing feathers with a black marker and as she fledged, the marks faded. I don't have a clue now which one she is because they are so uniform in size. Well, they are uniform sized except for the two that have developed combs and wattles first--roosters, I'm sure which is okay. Thought ya'll would like to know.

Thank you very much for the update. I did learn from your mistake, but mine was turkeys. When to Hirsch's and got the same type of feeder and water that the lady had that I got the turkeys from.

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Dorothy Kaye Collins

Good news and thanks for the update!

I have to show my wife this. The first time we had chicks I mail ordered them. I was out of town on business the day they showed up, I had everything set up all the wife had to do was unpack them, turn on the heat lamp, and show them food and water. I keep telling her you have to dunk their beak in the water... every single one of them. She kept telling me that was stupid. Finally I told her IT wasn't stupid, they were stupid. That is when she got it.

WOW, we raise a couple hundred chicks every year and don't dip beaks as a part of our SOP. We must buy smarter birds.

ROFL I've enjoyed this thread. You had quite an experience but your staying on top of it as you did has created a wonderful story for Grace the Amazing! Sorry your markings on her wings disappeared. I think she would have made a wonderful pet.

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

So glad your little chick is doing better, and don't be so hard to yourself. If you raise animals for any length of time, sooner or later, something like this will happen.
Now I'll tell on myself...
I had raised some ducklings from TS and kept them in the house until they were feathering nicely, and I couldn't stand the fluff anymore. I moved them out to the chicken lot, had no chickens at that time. Put their water and feed containers out there, they dove right into them and thought, great! All is well here. Went back in the house. Awhile later I went back outside and found one of the ducklings upside down in a small rotting stump...DROWNED. The little stump was rotten in the middle and was full of water, and the duckling hopped up there and decided to get a drink, I guess, and fell in upside down and couldn't get back out. The hole in the stump was barely big enough for the ducks body to fit in perfectly... Yup, I've been there. I felt like such an idiot, who else could drown their duck on DRY land, but me???

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Pro Libertate!