A broody hen??? in October

[aart]

Mine hatched, we have had beautiful weather. The broody and chicks are in with the flock. I had 100% hatch, but one was dead in the nest, and two have died in the first couple of days. The remaining five are thriving. If you go with nature, there is often some death loss.

Cooler and windier yesterday and today, but so far, water is not an issue, was frozen one day in the morning, but I got liquid water out there early.

I don't have electricity to my coop, so am going to try to rig up a black rubber bucket with nipples, can chicks learn to drink out of the nipples? I think on sunny days, that should keep the water liquid even in pretty cold weather.

Out to butcher two roosters today. That and a coyote attack, should get me a small enough flock to be comfortable in my set up for the dark days of winter. Last night, the broody hen was in the coop before 5:00 pm daylight savings time. That is a long night.

Mrs K

I seriously doubt this will work, especially with vertical nipples....horizontal nipples might work..... but I don't know what your climate is.
But yes chicks will learn the nipples faster than older chickens will IME

 

[centrarchid]

You can get by without continuous access to liquid water. A good drink early in morning with moistened feed for balance of day will support growth. My experience is the winter reared chicks mature slower and the first adult featherset is shorter and duller with males. They catch up by this time next year.

 

[Mrs. K]

Centrarchid
You have mentioned moistened feed a couple of times, just what is your set up, how do you do it?

We are barely getting towards freezing at night that is predicted for the next week and each day the chicks are a little stronger. Today I watched them, and they are starting to climb up on top of things with ease. I think they will be close to 3 weeks old or older before we get any tough weather.

But I did think you said in an earlier post, that liquid water was important to chicks.

AArt - what do you mean by vertical or horizontal nipples?

Mrs K

 

[centrarchid]

Yes, liquid water is important for chicks, especially when most of the food is dry. When insects and green plants dominate diet they can get by watering only once in early AM or even on dew. During winter unless snow or ice available, they need liquid to compensate for low moisture content of feed. Normally, when dry diet only is fed the chicks hit waterer multiple times per day. When temperatures are very low and you can not resupply liquid water, the hydration of feed can help spare some need for liquid water. I add enough water to make food like oatmeal. They still will want more but better than nothing. I make fresh daily to compensate for sublimation.

 

[aart]

.......

AArt - what do you mean by vertical or horizontal nipples?

Mrs K

Here's a thread all about the vertical vs the horizontal nipples. Lots of good info there, but it's a long read.

In short, the vertical ones are prone to leaking and will freeze up bad due to the way the valve works.
The horizontal ones can freeze too and IMO need to be in a heated vessel to stay operational....am working on that for my coop now as the cold temperatures loom...we've already had 2 nights below 24F.

Nipples are great for keeping a closed and clean water source, but remain a challenge for cold climates.
Can you add your location to your profile?

 

[Mrs. K]

Quote: I have at the bottom of my posts that I live in sw South Dakota.

I went to my profile and I will be danged if I can find a location place on there?

 

[aart]

Quote: Ohhh I didn't look there! Location is under 'edit community profile'.

 

[Mrs. K]

ok, here is the challenge, we have gone from 60-70 day time temperatures, lows in the 40's to 15 degrees right now and falling. The chicks are 2 weeks old, getting a few feathers on them..... but still not very big. Today, blustery wind, snow and cold.

In the run, I have a open black box with a plexiglass panel to the south. I call it the sun porch. Sunday, I filled this with a good layer of hay, and today, even without the sun, all were outside of the coop, in the sun porch. They seemed to spend the day, hunkered down in the hay, the whole flock together, chicks under broody, but all other hens near broody too. They were still there at 4:15, but just now I went down, and all were in the coop, broody on the floor, in a pile of hay.

Hope this works.

Mrs K

 

[centrarchid]

Keep them dry and if possible put in a creep feeder so chicks have an uninterrupted supply of feed without competition from adults. Even when temperatures well below zero they will come out to peck about for brief periods. This OK so long as excursions for feeding do not result in chilling. I would also make so broody hen is separated from other adults if she is not high ranking to make so pecking order issues do not conflict with her ability to brood chicks.

 

[Mrs. K]

Oh she is my top hen in pecking order.

7 degrees this morning. Going down with warm water and I am home today, so will go down several times.

Mrs K