newly hatched chicks with two hens

[plester01]

I have two sister hens that hatched 12 chicks they are together with the chicks and are helping each other out. Here is my problem. They are all out of the nest now, on the coop floor. I have other chickens in there with them. The first thing that happened was one of the other hens stole a baby and ran around with it. I got it back to the mommas and it is ok. I removed the chicken thief from the coop. But what about the other chickens. 2 hens and three roosters. Can they be trusted? Do I separate them? Right now they are separated but I can not leave them that way. They are blocked off out in the run. I can not get into the run because of the way my DH built it. Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

 

[ozark hen]

I took a long piece of chicken wire...about 8 ft of it and formed a circle then put some on the top. That is where I kept my hen and chicks until they were a couple weeks old and could escape the older ones. I would prop it up on the bottom a bit so they could run back inside their "cage" if need be after a week or so. Just put plenty of food and water inside. Now I had only one small hen and chicks so you may need to make it bigger or make two. I kept it inside the coop so everyone could see/hear each other and then when released, all went well.

 

[plester01]

Thank you for your suggestion. My DH says he will do that for me this evening when he gets home from work. I will keep them separate for now. They can still here them and if they look just right they can see them too. But after the incident with the silver seabright I am afraid to let them be together until we get the fencing in place. the moms are doing well, they are sharing the babies between them. The babies are also sharing the moms. They will be under one mom and then run under the other mom. They are good moms and good sisters.

 

[ozark hen]

Actually, I used hardware cloth for the big circle and chicken wire on the top. Just bend the chicken wire over the top so you can get in and out of it to feed and water. I am afraid chicken wire will allow the chicks to get outside the circle where they will be safe. I will try to find a pic of it for you. It really does work.

I am not sure what kind of wire I used now that I see it again. LOL just small enough so chicks can't get through.

 

[plester01]

thanks again. It looks like the wire that we have on hand. Should I keep the two moms together or do you think that I should separate them. They are still getting along pretty well but I was just watching them and one of them is trying to get all the babies under her. The other does not mind she is just raising up so the other hen can get under her. She seems more interested in the unhatched eggs that are under her sister.

 

[ozark hen]

I would just watch them and do whatever your gut tells you to do.

 

[plester01]

Last night my DH put up the separating fence. They are all doing fine. I took out the last of the eggs. They were duds except for 2. I died in the egg due to a deformed beak and the other one was the one that I accidentally droped yesterday. I put that one back with moms because you could see that chick was still alive and it had a small hole from where I droped it. Well guess what this morning when I went out it was laying by itself. The chick was crying and one of the moms was trying to help it out of the egg. The chick was mostly dry but could not get out of the egg. I helped it out and it is fine. I put it under mom 1 and everyone is happy. I can not believe that chick survived the fall. They are pretty tough little boogers. So now my count is 14 chicks out of 18 eggs. Thats a pretty good number considering it is the moms first hatch. They are really cute. I will try to post pictures in a day or two when they are not still hiding under moms. They are a cross between Silkies, MIlie Fluer and I think I see one that has traits of a Golden Seabright ( the only one without feathered legs).