How to Fix Splay Leg: One Little Chick's Story

One Little Chick's Story 

In my post on From Candling to Hatching: Chronicle of Our 2020 Hatchings, our super successful 2020 chick hatchings, I had a little babe suffering with splay leg. Splay leg is also known as straddle leg and is when a chick's little legs are spread too far apart or unbalanced and the chick has difficulty walking. You can read more about it here.

How to Fix It

Following instructions and suggestions I'd read about on other blogs and chicken sites, I decided to use self-adherent wrap and cut it to fit the legs of the chick.

I brought her inside and gave her a solid flooring in the tub to ensure she wouldn't slip. I used easy liner shelf grip from Walmart. 

I gave her a water feeder with rocks in it to ensure she wouldn't fall in and drown. I added some soft dusters so she wouldn't feel alone, and I brought in one other little chick to keep her company.

They both got plenty of attention and love.

Counting the two we brought inside, our first Mama had 7 chicks in total from the 2020 hatchings seen in Candling to Hatching. Only one baby had any issues and that was the splay leg.

I was so amazed how the wrap helped her walk normally. It was a learning experience, and I was lucky that it worked out for her.

From Candling to Hatching Baby Chicks

So Many Chicks in 2020

The year 2020 had many of us locked in our homes looking for projects to occupy our time. It turned out that some of our chickens found themselves in the same situation. We had a few ladies who went broody and wanted to be mamas. Little did we know how many chicks that year held for us.

This post contains graphic pictures and videos of chicks hatching and newly hatched.

Planning Ahead

In a previous post, on the joys of hatching chicks, I chronicled hatchings from 2019 where we allowed nature to take its course. With the craziness of 2020, and those previous girls still too young to lay, we decided to increase our flock by purchasing 6 more layers, not knowing our girls had many more chicks planned for us.

(6 new Isla chicks purchased March 2020)

Not the Only Chicks

We thought these would be the only babies we'd have on the homestead this year. However, our mamas from the prior year must have found themselves looking for more to do with their time.

Gals Going Broody:

March - May Hatchings

I always cave in when the mamas want babies, so I decided to allow them to hatch some more. 

Unfortunately though, my spacing was limited in the barn because the new Isla babies were staying in the makeshift maternity ward. I decided to convert our empty rabbit hutch into a makeshift maternity ward.