Advice on pulling chicks early

I know you guys are probably sick of hearing from me but I could really use some outside opinions on this one. As I mentioned in another post, the fourth baby hatched today and the hen did not feed him at all, everytime I looked he was piled underneath the bigger chicks(a week older than him) and they all had full crops while his was empty I even went as far as to remove the two largest chicks for about 10 minutes(I put them in a brooder so they were nice and warm) to see if maybe she would feed the smallest baby. Unfortunately, she still didn't feed and instead just paced around the cage, obviously upset that two of her babies were missing. I could tell that she wasn't going to feed them until she had her babies back so I just put the two back in, I didn't want to upset her and I figured I was just over reacting anyway since there were only four chicks. I've heard of hens not being able to feed all of the babies when it is a large clutch, usually 6 or more, but I didn't think she would have a problem with only 4. I've been giving her fresh food at least 3 times a day, or more if need be, I just check every couple of hours and make sure there is food in their bowl, and I've been keeping millet in her box. And I have watched the male feeding her. My problem is, the next egg is due to hatch in 2 days and I really don't want to lose this next baby the same way. If this next egg hatches in two days, the oldest two chicks will only be 9 days old, I didn't plan on pulling them for hand feeding until they were 14 days old. If I were to pull them at nine days, how much harder is it really going to be? I will say, I am home all day so I am available to feed them as often as they need, I'm just not sure how often that will be, every 2-3 hours I assume? What about during the night, at only 9 days are they able to go all night without food or will I have to feed them then too(also not a problem, I don't sleep much anyway lol). Ugh, I just don't know what I should do, leave them in the nest until next friday when they hit two weeks and risk the next baby starving or pull them at 9 days and possibly risk something happen to them because I pulled them so early, ugh, mikey, shreddedoaks, pedro, anyone else...advice?

Oh boy....All they require is more feeding at a younger age. If they're at 7 days old you would feed at 7am, 12pm, 7pm, and 12am. You can configure that time schedule since your home all day. IF the momma isn't feeding the youngest chick, you give him some yogurt first to build up bacteria(you gonna have to look which kind, I forgot) then feed very liquidty formula and I do it by the hour around the clock until it reaches 2 days of age, then it's every 2 hours til 4 days, then 3 hours til 7 days, I usually leave the baby with the momma as she will keep him warm. Those were my feeding schedule when I used to raise them and that's what I did when the momma didn't feed.

Thanks for the quick reply, I think the only reason she didn't feed this one was because the bigger three kept piling on top of him and hogging all of the food. I would rather pull the largest two and then leave the smaller two in with momma until they are two weeks old, do you think that would be feasible, I REALLY don't want to even attempt to feed one of these little guys from day one, they are so tiny, I've seen pinky mice bigger than these guys! What sucks is, when I found him he, I opened the box and momma climbed out and the baby was on his back so I think she was finally about to feed him but it was just too late. But the bigger guys are already starting to walk around a bit and their eyes are starting to open, they just trampled the little guy, the hen probably didn't even know he was there with them all piled on top of him.

Then the best thing for you to do is remove the older chicks. Keep them up later then usual tonight so you can observe if she is feeding or not. IF she is not, start the feeding process, she might still take over.

It's 2am here, I just turned a dim light on and checked and all three babies have full crops so she is still feeding them. How soon after hatching should the chicks be getting their first feeding? I figured I would wait an hour or two after the next chick hatches an if he hasn't been fed in that time, I will pull the older two babies permanently and hope that with only two chicks she won't have a problem feeding them for another week and a half/two weeks.

When did the baby hatch? If he hatched late tonight then you can just check early in the morning when the sun is out.

Baby four hatched (I think) around 11am. When my fiance left for work at 6:30am he hadn't hatched yet, by 12pm he was out. I checked the nest around 11pm and he had died already The next egg should hatch in two days, I'm just trying to avoid losing the next one due to the same problem.

He wasn't getting fed. 11am was too late to check. I am sorry for your loss though!

What do you mean 11am was too late to check? I think 11am was around the time he hatched. I had been checking on him about every two hours throughout the day and the hen was feeding the 3 older chicks but never fed him. I finally took the two oldest chicks out of the nest for about 10 minutes hoping that she would feed the new baby but she still just ignored him

IcyWolf said:

What do you mean 11am was too late to check? I think 11am was around the time he hatched. I had been checking on him about every two hours throughout the day and the hen was feeding the 3 older chicks but never fed him. I finally took the two oldest chicks out of the nest for about 10 minutes hoping that she would feed the new baby but she still just ignored him

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I think you got the am and pm mixed up in your post hon.

IcyWolf said:

Baby four hatched (I think) around 11am. When my fiance left for work at 6:30am he hadn't hatched yet, by 12pm he was out. I checked the nest around 11pm and he had died already The next egg should hatch in two days, I'm just trying to avoid losing the next one due to the same problem.

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This is the post I think your am and pm is typed wrong.
If the chick was born around 11am and you checked him again at 11pm.
Between 11am and 11pm is 12 hours .

Sorry for any confusion. Yes, he hatched around 11 in the morning. I had checked on him periodically throughout the day and he was alive but had not been fed, I was actually messaging you and I went to walk out of the room and got this weird feeling I should check on him again(this was around 11 at night) and when I checked on him he had died. He was still alive around 8 or 9 when I last checked before that.

When I checked on my chicks , all their crops are full and there are alot of them
I am prepared to feed if I have to , but I really think the parents have things under control. One the older chicks reach a certain age , the father feeds them , so I would think the hen would be able to feed the younger ones....but you are right about the tiny ones sometimes getting pushed away....its just such a tough call to make either way. I feel for you honey , I know you dont want to lose anymore .

I don't have any experience or knowledge in breeding or babies, etc, but did you consider that maybe the hen knew the 4th baby wasn't as healthy as the others (knew something wasn't quite right) when it hatched, so she purposely didn't feed it?

Just a thought..... and sorry for your loss IcyWolf

I was kind of thinking about that, and it's something that luvmytoo has suggested as well. I'm bummed out that we lost him but at the same time, I don't really see what I could have done to prevent it, the odds of me trying to raise a single day old baby by hand and it surviving are pretty low. I have hand fed all kinds of parrots but I have no experience starting from day one. And I also keep telling myself that if there is one or two that aren't going to make it, it's very sad, but it's kind of easier when they go right after they hatch like that, any longer and it's just more and more time for me to get attached to them. It was really hard on the both of us when we lost the last baby that was over 6 weeks old. By that time we had spent so much time just raising him that it was as hard as it would have been losing any of our adult birds.

I can't offer any help, but wanted to say I'm sorry about the baby you lost.

Like it was mentioned above, they will not care for one that have health issue. But I think in your case it really might of been the size issue. This is their first clutch isn't it?

I'm almost positive this is their first, yes.