Chicken Math in action- Also, how much space?

[Tricorn]

My poor broody hen rotted all her eggs, but still won't break her brood. She officially weighs less then half of what she did when she started. In a last ditch effort to get her to stop setting I figured- why not get her some chicks? But the only thing in the area are fluffy feather footed things.

. So I figure, Ideal always has specials- might as well pick some up!

Now 25 chicks will be here next week. How does this happen? We already have 50 chickens! Only 10 of them lay eggs! We do not need more eggs!

You guys think a 40 gallon water tub will be big enough for them? It's about 2ish ' wide and 4ish ' long. We have to raise this batch indoors so we can't use the usual brooders.

 

[Judy]

I wouldn't use that for more than a few days. Here is one guideline:

0.5 sq ft per chick up to 2 weeks
1 sq ft per chick for weeks 3 and 4
2.5 sq ft per chick for weeks 5 to 8

 

[Tricorn]

That's what I thought...

Hopefully by the time they get too big they'll be smart enough to find the heat lamp reliably. They should be alright in a stall then.

 

[The Breaker]

First of all if this ever happens again and u dont want more chickens just pick her up and put her on the grown shell be fine she maye act weird for a little bite but shell go right back to doing whatever the othehr hens do.

 

[Tricorn]

I wish it was that easy

We put her in the henhouse- she sits on nestboxes, we put her in a wire cage, she breaks brood, lays an egg, and goes broody! Having her hatch them out was (supposed to be) a last ditch effort.