Help needed. How to deal with new momma who in her zeal to teach babies to scratch, continually cov

[lwiese58]

I hope someone is online who can advise me on a different question regarding new chicks. One of my hens hatched out 2 babies 3 days ago. The three of them are isolated away from everyone else in a pen in our basement. Momma is doing a great job at teaching them to eat, drink and scratch. The problem I'm facing is that she is doing so much scratching in the chips that I'm constantly having to go clean out their food and water which she has scratched piles of chips into. I don't feel like I can do anything for having to continually run down there and take care of this and am beginning to feel just a tad frantic. I wish I could see the feeding set up that others have, to compare to mine. I must be doing something wrong as I haven't seen any other posts that mention this.

 

[sourland]

Typical mother hen activity. Any chance of moving her to a larger outside pen?

 

[lwiese58]

Typical mother hen activity.  Any chance of moving her to a larger outside pen?

We don't have a secure outside pen at this time. But I will see what I can do.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[sunflour]

Looks like you may have posted by mistake here, but feel compelled to Welcome you anyway

And say Hi to a fellow Georgian

You may get more opinions by posting under "raising baby chicks'?

Maybe consider separating the feed/water for mom and chicks - could you post a pic of their current home?

 

[drumstick diva]

Could you raise the feeder and water up a bit on a block or piece of wood -so maybe it doesn't get into them? Or position them further away from where she likes to dig. Maybe put paper towels near the water and food, so she won't bother scratching there.

 

[Pork Pie]

Since mom has been sitting for so long, she will naturally want to scratch around and I'm sure she is needing a dust bath. As Sourland suggests, putting them outside would greatly help. Even if you don't have a pen, if you can supervise them outside, mom will not wonder too far with her chicks.

CT