I tried searching for answers first, but figure I'll just post to help with my specific questions 
We had a broody hen, so we gave her 4 fertilized eggs to sit on. 3 have hatched for sure, the 4th one was starting to, not sure how it's doing. Mama is pretty protective.
Two of the chicks seem very healthy, the 3rd seems weak....but I also think it was the most recent to hatch. Is it normal for it to be wobbly the first day? I'm worried about spraddle leg, even though it's still in the nest box with pine shavings, it just seems weaker than the other two chicks.
Also, the last time this hen went broody, we gave her 4 eggs. 2 hatched. We were letting the mama raise the chicks in with our other 5 hens. One chick disappeared (no idea what happened. We suspect the neighborhood kids might have tried to play with it....) And the other developed leg issue at 3 weeks old and the vet ended up putting it down (she thought it had mareks disease, I didn't agree. I think it got stepped on or something)
So this time we are thinking we are going to separate the chicks and raise them in a brooder box. Thoughts? I feel bad for taking the babies from mama, but we had a 0% survival rate last time, so I also don't want to doom them to death. Also, we don't have an extra crate or anything that we could keep the mama and babies together in, or we would be going that route.
TIA!
We had a broody hen, so we gave her 4 fertilized eggs to sit on. 3 have hatched for sure, the 4th one was starting to, not sure how it's doing. Mama is pretty protective.
Two of the chicks seem very healthy, the 3rd seems weak....but I also think it was the most recent to hatch. Is it normal for it to be wobbly the first day? I'm worried about spraddle leg, even though it's still in the nest box with pine shavings, it just seems weaker than the other two chicks.
Also, the last time this hen went broody, we gave her 4 eggs. 2 hatched. We were letting the mama raise the chicks in with our other 5 hens. One chick disappeared (no idea what happened. We suspect the neighborhood kids might have tried to play with it....) And the other developed leg issue at 3 weeks old and the vet ended up putting it down (she thought it had mareks disease, I didn't agree. I think it got stepped on or something)
So this time we are thinking we are going to separate the chicks and raise them in a brooder box. Thoughts? I feel bad for taking the babies from mama, but we had a 0% survival rate last time, so I also don't want to doom them to death. Also, we don't have an extra crate or anything that we could keep the mama and babies together in, or we would be going that route.TIA!
