Any experience introducing broody mama and chicks to flock with cats around?

[humblehillsfarm]

Well.... you could put mama and her present chicks in the tractor for a couple of weeks, then integrate them in with the flock. They should be big enough by then to look like chickens and not like baby birds, so hopefully less attractive to the cats. As far your day-olds, brood them in the house and then the tractor till they are big enough to integrate.

What do you guys think?

That sounds like a plan. Now I just need to muster myself to the task on Saturday. It's not THAT bad but my coop is low so I have to crouch and my darn rooster likes to sleep directly in front of the door. He doesn't understand "excuse me" and the door to the tractor weighs like 1000lbs. So trying to transfer nest box, two peeping babies, and poofed up angry mama while dealing a behemoth roo and yeah. Ugh. I did myself in on this one. Also in the past my bf helped but he's going out of town. Talking about it on here made the task sound much better than the mountain in made in my head lol.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

That sounds like a plan. Now I just need to muster myself to the task on Saturday. It's not THAT bad but my coop is low so I have to crouch and my darn rooster likes to sleep directly in front of the door. He doesn't understand "excuse me" and the door to the tractor weighs like 1000lbs. So trying to transfer nest box, two peeping babies, and poofed up angry mama while dealing a behemoth roo and yeah. Ugh. I did myself in on this one. Also in the past my bf helped but he's going out of town. Talking about it on here made the task sound much better than the mountain in made in my head lol.

Lol, let us know how it goes!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

In case anyone wants an update, I came home yesterday and mama had made her great escape. My "paltry" poultry wire enclosure was nothing to her, both babies and mama were happily foraging away. I then caught the babies on top of the big birds' feeder eating laying feed. I just bought three forty pound bags of layer feed but for two chicks I'm gonna have to switch to chick feed for months...... Next time around I'm just going the All Flock route. Lesson learned.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

In case anyone wants an update, I came home yesterday and mama had made her great escape. My "paltry" poultry wire enclosure was nothing to her, both babies and mama were happily foraging away. I then caught the babies on top of the big birds' feeder eating laying feed. I just bought three forty pound bags of layer feed but for two chicks I'm gonna have to switch to chick feed for months...... Next time around I'm just going the All Flock route. Lesson learned.

Been there, done that, or similar. Those chicks will be on layer feed before you know it. When my last batch was maturing and I was stuck with a bunch of chick feed as well as layer, I mixed them half and half for a while until I got rid of both, then switched to all-flock. Nobody died!

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Been there, done that, or similar. Those chicks will be on layer feed before you know it. When my last batch was maturing and I was stuck with a bunch of chick feed as well as layer, I mixed them half and half for a while until I got rid of both, then switched to all-flock. Nobody died!

I mean they are already foraging away so I was thinking of just mixing the feed and calling it a day. My roo has been on layer feed his whole life and he's four and hasn't died of kidney failure. Glad to know you did the same with no problems too. I do have five hatchery chicks that will be exclusively fed with chick starter. The experience of raising chicks with mama hen and a brooder are night and day. Mama was the way to go 100%. I just went with hatchery chicks to have my "rainbow eggs".

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I mean they are already foraging away so I was thinking of just mixing the feed and calling it a day. My roo has been on layer feed his whole life and he's four and hasn't died of kidney failure. Glad to know you did the same with no problems too. I do have five hatchery chicks that will be exclusively fed with chick starter. The experience of raising chicks with mama hen and a brooder are night and day. Mama was the way to go 100%. I just went with hatchery chicks to have my "rainbow eggs".

I had always fed layer feed because I simply didn't know better until I came here. Had never had chicks, though, until recently, had started pullets and a roo. Found him dead at about age five of no discernible causes. Made me sad, I really liked him. Was it bc of the diet? I don't know. When I read here that people have chickens that live 8, 10 years or longer, I'll heed their advice.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I had always fed layer feed because I simply didn't know better until I came here. Had never had chicks, though, until recently, had started pullets and a roo. Found him dead at about age five of no discernible causes. Made me sad, I really liked him. Was it bc of the diet? I don't know. When I read here that people have chickens that live 8, 10 years or longer, I'll heed their advice.

I was thinking that it certainly wouldn't hurt the roo to switch to all flock raiser. My only concern was would the hens eat the free choice oyster shells? In the past they didn't, but perhaps it's because they didn't need it? Regardless, I have 120 lbs of layer feed needing to be eaten lol.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

I had always fed layer feed because I simply didn't know better until I came here. Had never had chicks, though, until recently, had started pullets and a roo. Found him dead at about age five of no discernible causes. Made me sad, I really liked him. Was it bc of the diet? I don't know. When I read here that people have chickens that live 8, 10 years or longer, I'll heed their advice.

I'm sorry the roo past so suddenly. My rooster is really a useless dope but I still love him. He is hilarious when he runs because he is a cochin so really he just waddles. He's very friendly so I'd hate to see him go prematurely...

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I was thinking that it certainly wouldn't hurt the roo to switch to all flock raiser. My only concern was would the hens eat the free choice oyster shells? In the past they didn't, but perhaps it's because they didn't need it? Regardless, I have 120 lbs of layer feed needing to be eaten lol.

If you don't have many hens, it may not look like they are taking the OS, but they are. It doesn't take much, but they will take what they need. A large bag may last you a year, but they definitely need it. I have close to 20 hens and I can certainly tell that they take it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

These are the kinds of feeders I keep the grit and oyster shell in. Makes it easy to see, over time, that they really are using it.