chicks

[tourmaline]

Hi, please can anyone give me some advice. One of our hens has hatched a live chick (1 died last week) and I have separated her from the other hens and Cockerells. She seems to be keeping it warm and it is quite alert. When do I start feeding it and what do I feed it. We have never had an egg hatch before so it is very exciting and we would love to keep it alive. Any advice would be great. It is 2 days old. Thank you.

[minskey]

Hi Tourmaline, congrats on the hatchling
I'm no expert having only hatched 5 chicks under a broody last year which all survived & are still going strong.
I had a single chick out of 6 eggs hatch this year under a broody which is 2 weeks old now.
You need some chick crumbs, make sure these are freely available in a feeder along with water in a shallow dish with pebbles so if the chick falls in it won't drown. My broody & chicks[I conned her into accepting another day old as her own] are seperated from the rest & will be for at least 8 weeks.
As I said I'm no expert but there are a lot of experienced chook keepers on the vine, I'm sure they will help.

[RichmondHens]

The chick will be fine under its mum. Offer chick crumb to both mother and chick to eat plus a shallow dish of water. If you don't have any chick crumb to hand some finely chopped hard boiled egg will be fine as a starter till you get to the feed store! As it is 2 days old it will be ready to feed from now on. Good luck and congrats!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Nothing to add as everyone has said it feed chick crumb - mom will teach it but at 2 days old it will need food soon.

So all to say is congrats and enjoy him/her - oh yeah and add piccies

[tourmaline]

chicks

Thank you all, I will get chick crumb tomorrow, I will get pics soon and hope the little one survives.