Bantam raising chicks with regular size

[Arlaliebmann]

Currently my coop has four regular chickens, one Bantam Cochin , and one bantam silky. My Bantam cochin has gone broody and I’d like to give her some fertilized eggs to hatch. Will she be able to protect the chicks once they are hatched from the larger hands? I plan on isolating her in a separate brooder area of the coop, but how long after they hatch will she want to take them out to the run?

 

[BDutch]

If there are no boundaries she probably will go out to explore after 3-4 days. But I would wait a few days -week longer to mingle.

I don’t have experience with the combination of regular sized chickens and a bantam broody. But If you have enough space and hiding places in the coop/run and the broody is normally not harassed by the bigger ones, I don’t think this will be different as with a flock of about 7 bantams.

If you can give the broody and chicks a fenced area of a few m2 (10sqft) to walk around to start with, you can wait until they are a week old and a bit quicker stronger. The other hens probably won’t see the chicks as a threat and everything will be fine. But always watch if you open the gate to see what’s happening. Or open up to let them explore and lock them up again after a few hours to start with. Probably the chicks get a warning to behave from the other chickens. But thats normal.

Maybe one of us can help you better of you tell us a bit more of you’re setup, experience or knowledge and plans.
Can you give a discription/drawing or foto’s of you’re situation?
How many eggs do you want to give her? What breed?
Did you have chicks with natural breeding before, do you know what you need to do with feed and such?

 

[BDutch]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...tegrating-chicks-into-an-adult-flock.1126547/

 

[Ebony Rose]

My broody insists on sitting on eggs on the coop floor, in a corner. I've tried moving her to a crate, etc... and she refuses to sit on the eggs until put back where I found them (sighs). I've made a compromise of leaving her in her chosen corner but putting a portion of a plastic shelving unit over her selected spot to at least keep her and the kiddos free of overnight poop-bombs from above. As soon as the peepers are dry, she's introducing them to daddy. By day two, she's scratching in the corners for make-believe food, my hint to drop a bit of chick grain on an empty feed bag in the middle of the room and put a very shallow dish of water nearby. By day three or four, she's out of the coop with her wee ones and their papa is often close by keeping all the other (jealous) hens at a respectable distance. By the beginning of their third week, she's encouraging her babies to sleep on the roosts. This hen typically has her chicks pretty much weened by the end of third week, and will only step in as their momma after weening if she sees a legitimate threat (such as a bird of prey).

Wow, wrote a book when all I meant to say is 'don't worry overly much about when she introduces them to the flock', provided that you didn't separate her from the flock while she was brooding.

 

[BDutch]

………', provided that you didn't separate her from the flock while she was brooding.

Wow, this sounds great. But circumstances of OP are probably different.

I prefer to separate when I have a broody. For several reasons:

• Because my broodies use the same nestbox as the other hens to lay the eggs.
• Because if I let one broody sit on eggs, she gets company , and within a week I probably have 3 broodies on the same nest.
• I don’t have a nice rooster who keeps the flock in control.

Last time I tried not to seperate and only 3 eggs out of 10 hachted successfully.

 

[Arlaliebmann]

So a lot has happened since I started this post. I was able to find some fertilized eggs and put 6 under her. I also isolated her in the broody pen which is in the coop and only separated by a gate until she found the eggs and decided to sit on them. That only took overnight. She did great the first week. I left the gate open in the broody so she could get out of the coop the eat and drink, which she did for about 30 minutes a day. Into the second week one day when I checked on her, I noticed that there were two eggs that were broken and two eggs missing. I also saw that there was an extra egg that was laid in there by one of the other hands. I’m not sure what is happening I don’t have any chickens that are eating eggs, but it seems like somebody is getting into the eggs. We don’t have any predators here. So I was down to 2 eggs and candled at 14 days. 1 looked very viable and the other not so promising. At 18 days while checking on them saw that someone had gotten into the viable egg as part of the top was just sheared away and a almost fully grown chick inside. Broody is only a year old so thinking maybe she is just inexperienced?

So I took advantage of the situation and timing and went to the local feed store and bought 5 chicks, 2 bantams and 3 regular. I introduced them at night and she seemed to welcome them right away. I have a camera in the broody so can check in on them, however it doesn’t record so don’t know what is happening when I’m not actively looking at it. The next morning all was great I could make out all 5 chicks. The silky was one of the most active of the group coming out to eat and drink. At this point I closed the gate so the other hens wouldn’t bother them. After a few days, I noticed that the other bantam wasn’t coming out to eat and drink and was worried that she was just a little too small. Then after about six days, I saw in the camera that the little silky had died, being right under where mama sat, and the other bantam as well.

So after this long explanation my question is. Am I doing something wrong with the setup that I have? Or is this common that some eggs/chicks just don’t make it? Just seems like I have a high rate of failure. Could it be that mama is too young and do they ever suffocate chicks while sitting on them? Mama had full access to coop for food and water when sitting on the eggs and once I put chicks in and shut the gate, I put feeder and watere in the brooder with chick starter feed.

Any insights would be great for future attempts at this.

Oh, and my flock is only 6 hens.

 

[BDutch]

I’m so sorry it didn’t work out as it should.
You had a great deal of bad luck thats for sure. I’ve been thinking and wondering what could have caused all these misfortunes.

What crossed my mind: rats, the other chickens, buying sick chicks. But these are only thoughts. I really don’t know.

 

[Arlaliebmann]

Now really discouraged. Are silkies or other bantams prone to illness easier than regular size? I just came home and found my last silkie (1 year old) died in the nesting box overnight

Last couple of days seemed to be a loner, but still eating and drinking. Just thought she was missing her buddy, who is currently the broody with the chicks. I feel like I’m just killing chickens. I seem to lose a chicken about every 3 months or so, so figure if it is some kind of disease, they would all come down with it. Currently have 3 olive eggers that I got at nine months old, and have had them for about two years so they are going on three years old. Then I have a silver laced Wyandotte that I got last year as a day old chick with 4 other chicks (2 polish and 2 silkies) and she is the only one that has survived. I then got two more silkies and a Bantam cochin that were about six weeks old when I got them a year ago, I lost one silky in December from a respiratory illness, and the little black silky that died today, and the Bantam cochin is my broody with the chicks.

I give them layer feed from tractor supply and table scraps when we have any. I also make a scratch from corn, black sunflower, and wheat that came from someone’s storage that’s probably 40 years old. I just have no idea what could be the issue but now wondering if I have to stop my hobby because they keep dying.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will post some pics of my setup to see if anything is wrong with that.

 

[BDutch]

Sorry to hear about these losses.

In general you can say that bantam breeds live longer than the production hybrids. I have 3 Dutch that are 7 and 8 years old. The oldest never had any health problems. The 7 years old only had a cold as chick.

What the reason of you’re losses is is impossible to say. I can only give hints what might be a issue.
Some thoughts :

• I hope the 40 years old is the store, not the feed you give the chickens.
• Lack of ventilation. Chicken needs lot of fresh air. best make more vent openings under the roof if the coop is moist snd smells bad.
• Daylight and sunlight.
• Parasites. Give the chickens a spot to sand bathe. Check the skin snd poop.
• Poisoned feed, poison from farms near where you live or what you use in you’re garden.
• Unhealthy left overs that are too fat or too salty. Try skip it if you are not sure its healthy for chickens.
• Stress, because the chickens have not enough rooms and hiding places.

Try to eliminate all these possible issues. Post pictures of you’re setup and chickens. To ask for real advice.