Hi this is my first time here. I have a question. I have some hens that went broody so I decided to give them some eggs. That was 20 days ago and I have chirping from three eggs!!! My question is should I leave them under her or can I move them? Does anyone know? This is my first time hatching any eggs and i dont want to mess it up!
Also, my nesting boxes r up high so the chicks couldn't get up there, will she nest on the ground with them? Or should I just take them and put them under lights?
Congratulations on your hatching!
I always let the hen finish the job of hatching and brooding. She will do an excellent job and your life will be easy and free from heat lamps and brooding bins. It is usually best that she is and her brood are protected from hens who could become aggressive with the chicks, although many have mixed flocks with no issues.
I'm not sure I understand your second question. Your nesting boxes are up high. Do you mean she is also brooding on a nesting box up high? If so, you may prefer to provide some means of preventing the chicks from falling out of the nest and tumbling below if that is a possibility (although many hens nest high and take care of their chicks with no problems). I prefer to have some sort of enclosure so they can't do a "dumb chick" trick.
The hen will take the chicks out when they are ready. You may desire to put a little "chick ramp" up to the nest box so the chicks can walk up it to access it until they get older (usually they just fly up by 2 or 3 weeks of age.)
I have a high brooding box, and mine got a bit confused the first week so the hen wanted to nest with them in the little brooding run. however while the brooding box locks tight, the run fencing is not dug down into the ground and I couldn't let her do that for fear of predators. So, we built a little chick friendly ramp alongside the big hen ramp (the original ramp had rungs that were too far apart and the ramp too steep for the chicks so they didn't go up it). That worked really well.
HTH
Lady of McCamly
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