Sad little Chick

We had a chick that the hen stepped on.... poor thing wasn't doing well so I made the hard choice to put the little thing out of his misery. Orpington crazy daughter is very upset! The hardest part for me as a Mom is seeing how crushed she is.

Sorry to hear that, Daughter must realize that this is part of being a good chicken keeper, there are things that we must do, this will not be the last time you will require to intervene. I'm sorry she is so upset, but these things do happen. There will be more chicks, do have a wonderful day, anyway, CynthiaM.

CynthiaM, she is not upset with me for making the choice....she knew it had to be done. It's just hard on her heart, she cares for her birds so much.

I'm 49 and it's still hard on my heart too. I still have to tell myself that I did the right thing for the animal and not myself.

gads. every time I have done it I am left shaken for the rest of the day. there is some sense of rightness to doing the best thing for the animal though, it doesn't make me feel right but I know it was. totally understand how she feels. freezer camp is coming up for the roosters and I might be a wreck after that for a few days, not looking forward to it.

toybarons wrote:I'm 49 and it's still hard on my heart too. I still have to tell myself that I did the right thing for the animal and not myself.

  Same here. It's never easy, no matter how many times you've done it before...

Hugs to your daughter Echo. She sounds like a great chicken keeper. Mom too.

The hardest thing we ever did was the very first time we had to end the life of a baby chick . We can do it a little easier now but it still breaks your heart. I have also found that the more I disturb the mom when she is hatching the more likely she is to step on one. I don't look anymore when they are hatching. It is really hard because it is so exciting but I keep my distance . I poke my head in once in a while and listen for cheeps. When I first had chickens I would sneak a peek underneath her during a hatch but I noticed she moved around when I did that. It broke her focus somehow and a couple of times a chick got stepped on. Now I just leave them alone to it and wait till I see the little heads pop out from underneath her. I don't know if this is true, just my observation.

I agree 100%, V.C. Leave them alone and quiet until they're ready to show off their babies. Think how you'd have felt, when you (well, you other mums out there) were giving birth, if great creatures had kept coming in and peering and poking. . . .
Still, sometimes accidents happen, and some mum hens are more competent than others. I had one hen who murdered two of her four babies, completely unprovoked and uninterrupted.