2 broodies, 17 incubator chicks 2 weeks to 1 day old) can we integrate?

[affacat]

So. We had a very staggered hatch. Short version was this was unplanned, we had 3 broodies, 1 quit, and we ended up incubating a bunch of random eggs.

So we now have 17 chicks ranging from 2 weeks to yesterday (and two more eggs unlikely to hatch).

The two most recent were actually taken from a broody last night - she was acting weird, we thought she was quitting on her eggs, we candled them. We first tried relocating her and her 6 eggs to a new place, but she hated that. So eventually we decided to incubate her two pipped eggs overnight.

Anyway. We still have 2 broodies. We don't know if they are good mammas. We did find a dead chick in one nestbox, but we don't know for sure what happened (this was over a week ago, and we took all her eggs since we were already incubating the abandoned ones.

My question is... Do you think we can give these chicks to the two Mamas? Are the older ones too old?

Also... They are currently broody in the main coop and would need to be relocated before we gave them chicks. But in relocating them, they might go wild again.

Any suggestions appreciated. We do have a section of the run separated with some makeshift nestboxes for the broodies, we just aren't sure how to correctly transfer and our first attempt backfired. We are equipped to raise these chicks ourselves but would greatly prefer the 2 mammas to

 

[T-R-O-U-B-L-E]

So. We had a very staggered hatch. Short version was this was unplanned, we had 3 broodies, 1 quit, and we ended up incubating a bunch of random eggs.

So we now have 17 chicks ranging from 2 weeks to yesterday (and two more eggs unlikely to hatch).

The two most recent were actually taken from a broody last night - she was acting weird, we thought she was quitting on her eggs, we candled them. We first tried relocating her and her 6 eggs to a new place, but she hated that. So eventually we decided to incubate her two pipped eggs overnight.

Anyway. We still have 2 broodies. We don't know if they are good mammas. We did find a dead chick in one nestbox, but we don't know for sure what happened (this was over a week ago, and we took all her eggs since we were already incubating the abandoned ones.

My question is... Do you think we can give these chicks to the two Mamas? Are the older ones too old?

Also... They are currently broody in the main coop and would need to be relocated before we gave them chicks. But in relocating them, they might go wild again.

Any suggestions appreciated. We do have a section of the run separated with some makeshift nestboxes for the broodies, we just aren't sure how to correctly transfer and our first attempt backfired. We are equipped to raise these chicks ourselves but would greatly prefer the 2 mammas to

Its really too late to move them. Can you section them off in the main coop? What is your setup?

 

[affacat]

Its really too late to move them. Can you section them off in the main coop? What is your setup?

We have a large 8x12 coop with 3 spanning roosts, but almost all squeeze into a single roost. We have a long wide run that has a section cordoned off at the end we planned to use for momma's.

We have a second run/coop with some older chickens but we plan to move those into the main coop and give that to turkeys. We also have a small run/coop currently with meat chickens.

We also have a couple horse troughs set up as brooders.

What is the latest chicks can bond with a momma? Can we give her some of the youngest?

 

[T-R-O-U-B-L-E]

Probably.

 

[Iluveggers]

If you are going to give either chicks, the younger thr better. Do it at night when it is dark. Slip a couple under her. Make sure she is blocked off from the rest of the flock somehow with her own food & water for the babies. Get up earlier than the chickens do, and watch as she “discovers” them. If she attacks, remove them back to the brooder. If she accepts them, you can leave them with her.

 

[renk777]

We just went through this. I created a post regarding our experience earlier this morning. I introduced 2+ week old chicks to a broody and she accepted them and the 2 replacements when we swapped out 2 suspected cockerels yesterday. My advice would be to place the older chicks under one broody and younger chicks under another tonight. Quadran them off from the rest of the flock. Throw some feed around mamas at the same time so that when they wake up with chicks, hopefully instinct kicks in and they start clucking for them to eat. Once you see they've accepted them, increase their range in coop....even if it means locking out other birds for an hour or so. If chicks have imprinted on mamas and they appear to have adopted chicks, then move to the designated space you have for mamas to rear the chicks.

 

[affacat]

Ok. So it sounds like we should introduce at their current nest box, then move. Which is I less than optimal (nest box is higher than recommended for chicks, and close enough to door to be hard to rope off). Wish I could move the momma's first but that didnt work. I will report back

 

[affacat]

Ok. So it sounds like we should introduce at their current nest box, then move. Which is I less than optimal (nest box is higher than recommended for chicks, and close enough to door to be hard to rope off). Wish I could move the momma's first but that didnt work. I will report back

Hmm. My wife is very gunshy about introducing the chicks to a broody because the last time we did the broody attacked it and it lost half it's feathers and died despite our efforts to save it. So she doesn't want to introduce chicks at night for fear they are killed during the night. Which is a shame the whole reason we ended up incubating was because had broodies

 

[gimmie birdies]

I have given older chicks to broody hens in the evenings only to start. This hen got this older single chick for a few evenings, soon enough they bonded.