Best way for Broody to raise chicks?

[10xmama]

I'm trying to get informed on what to do with my broody and chicks when they hatch. I'm chuckling hearing that old "don't count your chickens before they hatch" playing in my mind … so, my broody is setting in our barn (away from the coop/flock) with 8 fertile eggs. Not due to hatch until 7/13. I was thinking at first that I had to keep them separate until the chicks were grown. I figured the mama would be ready to return to the flock before the chicks could go…. but then I read somewhere else that I could move the broody and her chicks to the coop at night 2-3 days after they hatch… and that the mama will protect her chicks from the other hens (we do not have a roo). It would be easier to move them into the coop at that young age … I surely would have less to do that way than trying to manage new chicks in a brooder cage. I'm just concerned the chicks would get harmed by the others.

Also, I open the run in the late afternoons for some free range time for the flock. Would mama keep her chicks safe? Would the chicks wander far? I'd be concerned something could get them?

Just trying to lear what most people do and find gives them the best results and easiest time integrating?

 

[Judy]

I let my broody mamas raise the chicks in with the flock -- many people do. She protects the chicks from the other hens. This is the traditional way to do it. Personally, I can't see any reason to raise them separately unless the chicks are worth huge amounts of money. Yes, something can go wrong, particularly if the broody turns out to be not a good mama, which does happen now and then. Roosters actually are more likely to help with the chicks than harm them; it's the hens that tend to do any attacking.

Chicks raised with the flock tend to develop better immunities, grow faster, be smarter about things like foraging and hiding from predators, and just generally do better. The mama will usually stop mothering the chicks when they are around 4 or 5 weeks old, so If you separate the mama and babies, the chicks will be too small to put in with the flock safely, and you will most likely need a grow out pen for them til they reach adult size. When they grow up in the flock, they are already accepted when the mama stops mothering them.

There's no doubt they will be in some danger during free range time, of course, especially if you have anything like hawks around. But the mama should keep them with her and watch over them.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

x 2, My broodies also do their business in with all of their flock members. But, I have had a couple of hens that nest hop or get bullied out of their nests because they're low on the pecking order. I do separate those girls. They go in a dog crate in the coop, so they're still with the flock, they just can't be bothered or sit on the wrong nest anymore. After the chicks hatch and are getting around well, I open the door and she brings them out when she's ready.

Good luck

 

[10xmama]

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I will totally move her back in after the chicks hatch. When would be the best time? A couple of days? Should I just place her and the chicks in a corner of the coop floor one night; or, put them all up in a nesting box? My nesting boxes are pretty high … 18 in or so off the floor at least. Seems too high for chicks.

Also, I do not keep food/water in the coop; it's out in the run. Would that be a problem for the chicks? The water is hung higher than chick height too. I think they could reach the food but not the waterer. Will mama hen help them somehow?

Thanks for your help

 

[nessz79]

Wondering the same thing. I have my broody separated because we have a small coop and the other hens were constantly trying to lay on or very close to her and were stealing her eggs.

Now I'm wondering when to re-integrate her with the flock. The sooner the better, because our temporary open-air coop for the other 2 hens is not the greatest.

 

[Judy]

I have let the mama and chicks in with the rest of the flock as soon as the chicks were up and about; they were also tring to get through the chicken wire to the others, so I just opened the door.

18" is no problem for the chicks at all. Many a chick has jumped off a hayloft to the barn floor. Mama will just cover them where they gather under her, or where she gathers them under her. I just make sure there is hay around for her to hollow out a nest in, but it certainly doesn't have to be hay.

The chicks will need a way to get up to the water, like a couple of bricks piled next to it, or you can put another waterer down where they can reach it, with maybe a scrap of plywood under it to cut down on the amount of litter kicked into it. You can even lower the hens' water if necessary. I do the same with the food, although the mama will scoop out some food and signal to the chicks to come eat it.

To anticipate a common question, though you may know the answer, feed the whole flock whatever you are feeding the chicks. They will do fine, and this will prevent the chicks' organs getting damaged from the high calcium in layer feed. You can even feed your laying hens chick feed with amprolium and still eat the eggs, as the amprolium isn't absorbed by the hens to any extent.