The Ugly Chickling in Days of My Destiny

Our hens have been laying on their eggs for about 3-4 weeks now and in the last 4 days or so, about 10 eggs have hatched. One little chick died, didn't make it. Most of them are black with soft, light yellow patches of fur on their heads or on the tips of their wings. One is all sorts of colours, we called that one Rainbow (M's idea). Another one is black with the tiniest elongated spot of brown on its head, that one is Bella. The rest are unnamed as they are so similar, lol. The other day I went in there to feed them, and the laying hen left her eggs and ran straight to the food. She must've been starving! What she didn't realise was that one egg was hatching. It was a lovely surprise to see this egg with a hole in it the size of a ten-cent piece. I stood there quietly and watched the events unfold. The little chick pushed its legs out through the egg, then stayed still for some time..... then finally, it stretched its whole body, cracking the rest of the egg in half and the chick fell out, wet and dazed. It wasn't moving much and I worried. Soon it started chirping and I was glad it was alive. The chirps got louder and louder but no hen did anything about it. One hen just looked at it. I figured, well.... this must be how it is, I've never seen this before. It kept chirping, chirping, chirping, louder and louder - and nothing. The hens soon stopped eating and as they nestled back over their eggs, I noticed all the other chicks were climbing onto their mothers' backs (as they do) and not one single chick or hen was giving a damn about this tiny little chick that had just been born. I decided to pick it up because it looked so desolate. It felt cold to the touch and I knew it needed warmth, ideally the warmth of its own mother. Soon I put it near the hens and shoved it almost underneath one of them and that was that. Between the time it hatched and the time I let it go, maybe 15 minutes had passed. The hens looked at it as if it was strange.

I was hoping it would survive and I actually prayed for this little chick with my girls. The thought of it dying simply because it didn't enter this world whilst underneath its mother was too sad to contemplate, and honestly I felt that it was my fault any of this happened the way it did - after all, the hen would not have left her eggs had I not walked in there to feed them.

The next day, I woke up early and went straight to the chook pen to check on the little chick - it was alive!!! It was dry now and fluffy and a range of colours also. While Rainbow has BLOCKS of colours all over it, this new chick had all those colours mingled all over it. I was really happy that it did survive the night and that my girls' prayers were heard. Later on in the day, I was near the chook pen and heard an insane amount of chirping, so I went over to see what was going on. This little chick, the newest one, was hobbling around, chirping loudly, blood all over its face. Again, no other animal was doing anything about it. I panicked immediately and went in there to rescue it. I picked it up and gave it warmth, telling it it would be alright. I had no idea how to fix such a wound, but I walked away with it anyway. I figured my dog must have sneaked in there through a tiny gap between the gate and the fence. This gap is normally covered with a big bit of wood, precisely so that nothing can get in there, but alas, the wood was on the ground. I went over to my dog and the dog sniffed the chick for a bit, then got down low with its tail between its legs, looking at me all guilty-like. I was so mad. At closer inspection, I saw that this little chick had a bleeding piercing on either side of its head, however one side was a lot worse, with a patch of its skin missing and everything. I got a tissue and after wetting it, dabbed it lightly on the wound. This chick was chirping so loudly, it seemed to be weeping. It couldn't even open its eyes, it had blood all over one of the eyelids! Then I remembered that tea tree oil helps in the management of small wounds, so I put some of that on it, and the bleeding soon stopped. This poor chick was just such a mess. I gave it drips of water with a syringe and it drank slowly. I had no idea whether this little thing would survive after this. I decided that regardless, I would hold it for as long as I could. I figured if it were to die, why should it die lonely and unloved? I held it for about an hour before my hands started getting sore. Its wounds were dry by now and I decided I'd put it back in the chook pen with the others. Only when I put it near the hens, one of them pecked at it! At first I thought that perhaps they were trying to get rid of the open wound, mistaking it for some other foreign object. I quickly picked it up again and resolved to have it with me until the wound completely healed. This time the chick chirped much louder and for much longer and there didn't seem to be much to do to settle it. A few hours later I tried to put it back with the others again. This time, all the hens pecked at it FIERCELY! What the fuck!!!! I was so mad!!!!!! This poor little chick who barely survived its own hatching was now being pecked and hurt by its own mothers and aunties!!!! And even some of the little chicks were pecking at it too!!!!!!! I was unable to get the chick out of there without getting a stick and whacking the hens out of the way first, they were that mad and fierce. I held it and apologised to it for putting it back there again. I saw that its wound that had just closed was open again after that pecking so I put some more tea tree oil on it. I wondered if this chick could live with my other two older chicks that I have elsewhere on the farm (these are ones I bought for my daughters). Of course, these chicks were simply curious at the new small chirping thing beside it, but after looking at it intensely for about a minute, they walked away and went about their business. I was lost as to what to do. Would this little chick die after all? I was up to my second attempt at rescuing it and allowing it a happy life - was this project futile? I did some research online and found out that yes, indeed, mother hens CAN attack their own babies. They usually reject and sometimes attack and kill the weakest ones, supposedly to "protect" the stronger ones (how this works I have no idea). I realised that this chick wasn't born the way it should've been. It hatched straight into thin air, into the cold, rather than into its mother's warm feathers and body. (We haven't seen any one of the others hatch, so that's how I figure they hatch under the mothers.) And well, as for the mother, she has no idea who this little chick is!!! She wasn't there when it was born!!!! She would see it as an intruder probably, and so naturally she will attack it to keep it away from the others. I did read on other pages that sometimes the hens do reject the ones that look vastly different to the others, especially if they are first time mums. I don't understand how they'd see this chick so different, if Rainbow also has those colours. (But in a different pattern....) Anyway, I held my little reject chick and gave it warmth. It slept a lot. By the end of the day, I figured, well, it needs its own companion to sleep next to and grow up with. I went back to the chook pen to grab a little chick to give it some company, but I just couldn't do it. I know they're only chickens, but seriously, how can you rip a baby away from its mother??? But then........... I saw that there was ANOTHER rejected little chick hanging around. It seemed to have only hatched yesterday, and it was laying around, separate to all the other chicks and hens, and nobody seemed to care. So I grabbed it and brought it inside to befriend the hurt chick. Last night they slept together under a heat lamp and this morning I was pleased to see them, side by side, sleeping soundly. I was also glad to see that the hurt little chick is also still alive after its SECOND horrible ordeal at life. My girls asked to hold the chicks. I let them. L (the almost-3-year-old) put the hurt little chick down her pants, except that I didn't know. M (the almost-6-year-old) alerted me by bringing the chick to me, and it was flaccid, its head rolling around. I was mortified!!!!! I asked L what she'd done with the chick, and that was when she told me she put it down her pants - obviously she'd squished it with the elastic of her pants!!!!!!!! I held it and spoke to it (it recognises me voice by now) and gave it more water with a syringe. Ahhhhh!!!! This was the THIRD DAY IN A ROW that this little chick was being attacked and having close encounters with death!!!!!!! I said to the girls, if this little chick survives after this, I will DEFINITELY name her something along the lines of Survivor!!!!!!!!!

I'm happy to report that this little chick is alive and well. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but honestly, this little one IS a survivor! I looked up the word survivor and google translate, to come up with the name Survivor in another language. I wanted something that would sound awesome. It's too hard to pronounce the word Survivor in some languages, and in others it just sounds yuck. In polish, the word is niedobitek. I like the sound of it, but it's too long. Not having any clue about the language, I typed in niedo and it means "deficiencies", while bitek means "fights." So their word for Survivor literally means, "fights deficiencies." I liked it. I've decided to call this chick Bitek. "Fights." This little thing sure has fought for her life in the short 3 days she's been around, so Bitek it is!!!!! As for the other one, I wanted to call it something along the lines of "companion." In Spanish, you can say "colega" for colleague. So I've shortened that to Cole.

So these two reject chicks are Bitek and Cole. Pronounced Bee-Tek and Call-eh.

:)