bodger
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A sad little warningWent and looked at a broody hen last night that I had sitting on eggs.
The nest box that she was in was on the floor and had a 3" lip at the front to keep the nesting mareial in. When I looked there was a dead chick on the outside. It had obviously hatched and managed to get out of the box but been able to get back in. The poor mite had died of cold whilst only inches from the warmth provided by its mum.
I checked under the broody and saw that there were two chicks and one or two eggs left unhatched.
I decided to arrange a piece of slate in such a way that no more chicks could get out.
When I went there this morning the chicks were fine and I decided to take the nest box out so that no further chicks would find themselves stranded from their mum.
When I took the nest box out I found four more chicks huddled up behind it stone dead.
Needless to say I'm gutted. I've been breeding chicks for donkeys years and should have known better. The chicks were probably dead the night before, so learn from my painful lesson. Make sure that newy hatched chicks can get both get in and out of the box that the broody is sitting in and remember ! the lip I'm talking about was only 3" high.
Instead of a healthy brood of eight, I've ended up with two.
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Cathryn
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What a shame! And the two left - what sort are they?
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bodger
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Two pyle Oxford Game Chicks.
I had a brood of nine hatch two days a go and I'll try and get daughter to take some piccies with her birthday pressie. She's 21 today. 
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Cathryn
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Happy Birthday Frances! Is she at home? Or probably celebrating at Uni!
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hedgewitch
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So sorry about the chicks Bodge.
Happy birthday to your daughter Hope you all have a great day of celebrations 
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2steps
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sorry about your chicks, that's so sad
hope your daughter has a good birthday
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Tradbritfowlco
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i found a chick that had wriggled away form mum once, looked dead, but i warmed it up anyway and it came back to life! always try that in future, could be worth a shot - we were going to chuck this one on the compost heap!  it turned out to be a cockerel...
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