All went surprisingly well. Both broody hens accepted the new chicks. Luna wasn't even sitting on the eggs when we placed the chicks under her. Luna got 11 and Jilly got 5 more so 9 total. When comparing the size of the 5-day old chicks to the day old, they were surprisingly close.
Now...
So our chicks came early, only one day after they were born. The others are 5 days old. When the
Thank you so much for all the info. Wow! I really had no idea, so just wasn't sure what was acceptable. Thank you for sharing your experiences. That's great to hear that 15 chicks is not too...
We gave 4 chicks to a broody hen and she took them under her wing, literally.😉 We have more chicks coming in a few days and another broody hen. We had nested some fake eggs for the other hen to sit on in a different area of the broody hen coop. But Jilly found them and immediately went to...
This is my first experience having a broody hen raise store-bought chicks. Usually when we've had chicks in the past, we started them out indoors and spent as much time as possible with them so they would get comfortable with us. With the chicks now with their new mama most of the time, are...
I tried crumble a while back and they didn't eat that either. I have given them just the pellets before and I feel like they look at me as if to say, "What?! Are you kidding me?! You expect us to only eat this stuff?!" They sort of whimper and the Welsummers and the Cochin make these very...
Hi, Sorry I didn't respond but I am just now seeing this. I have to figure out how to get notification when I receive a response.
We are in California and for the whole summer, we got very few eggs. There are no coyotes, snakes, dogs, strange humans , or raccoons in the area. We do have...
Hi, just seeing these messages. Rosie has a respiratory infection. She's had it for many months now. We have tried a couple antidotes so far. It is bacterial.
I am going to pick up the Tylosin tomorrow. I don't know the strength yet. I was told to put 1/4 tsp in a liter of water and...
Can the Tylan that is supposed to be put in water be mixed into some food instead? Is the injectable Tylan the same formula as the one to be put in the water?
Thank you,
Deirdre
Well, we looked in and the hen was pecking at the chick. It had a big open wound on its back. We removed the chick and set up an incubator. I tried putting a little antibiotic ointment on the wound. Anybody have ideas how best to take care of something like this?
We also removed the hen...
Any thoughts on mites on chicks? We have been trying to deal with them but they are definitely still an issue. Mama doesn't seem to be bothered by them. I put some DE in there but read it can harm the lungs of the chicks. So I mixed some Poultry Dust that contains Permethrin into the...
I don't know how long it's been cracked but this morning it was intact. The chick is out and under the hen and she doesn't seem to be bothering it. They are right near the house so we'll keep monitoring. Thank you.
We have not candled the eggs. Never done that before. The hens haven't cared much for our meddling. We had to move them at the beginning to another place because they were being hassled by the other chickens. They had already lost 2 eggs to who knows what. Felt like enough drama so been...
Ok thanks. We'll keep a close watch. If there are chicks we would hear them, right? I just don't want to keep disturbing her and lifting her up to see the eggs. I assume I should be able to see or hear the chicks?
Thanks for the reply. They are not her eggs but she had been a very devoted mama to them. We'll keep a close eye on them. It was a big chick. I can't believe it fit in that little egg.
I am new to all this. We have a broody chicken, well 2 broody chickens but 4 eggs were under one. I went to check on them this morning and found a dead chick with half its feathers missing from its back and a very bloody looking featherless neck. What happened?! We are concerned for the...
Two of the chickens are broody and sitting on eggs. So that leaves the 5 others. They are not very old. Two are 1.5 years and 3 are probably 3 years old. We do free range. They stay in the coop overnight but are free to roam during the day.
Hi,
I'm pretty new to owning chickens. Recently our two Marans once again went broody. This time we decided to get some fertile eggs. They are now in a separate coop with the eggs. Meanwhile the other 5 chickens have dramatically decreased their egg production. Here we are in June and...