Chicks just hatched.

[Cwood2091]

Hello, I am new to this page and hoping for a little guidance. I have my own small flock for a few years now and for the first time got a broody hen. We don’t have a roster so I rounded up some fertile eggs from a friend. Momma has been doing a good job and all four hatched this morning. They are all in the main coop with the other birds (which is another of my worries) About 10 days into my first batch starting, a friend wanted to add another batch of fertile eggs to my broody. So my plan was to take the first hatching away and put them in a brooder. I am all ready to do that. And then hope my broody will continue to sit on the second batch. They still have 10 days until hatching. I should mention we did this because the friend wanted to increase her flock and couldn’t get her hands on chicks from the store (covid mass purchasing) people are buying them all out. Our plan seemed like an easy cheap way to get chicks. I am so hesitant to take this first batch away from the mom now that I have read people’s comments but also don’t want to sacrifice the 6 growing eggs she is still sitting on. What should I do?

 

[featheredplanets]

You can try it but personally I think the gap is too big. She’ll already be bonded with the hatched chicks by the time you take them away, bonding starts before they’re out of the shell, they talk to each other while hatching. It’s a game of chance whether she’ll ignore them and set for another ten days. Staggered hatching really only works well with incubators.

 

[Cwood2091]

You can try it but personally I think the gap is too big. She’ll already be bonded with the hatched chicks by the time you take them away, bonding starts before they’re out of the shell, they talk to each other while hatching. It’s a game of chance whether she’ll ignore them and set for another ten days. Staggered hatching really only works well with incubators.

 

[Cwood2091]

Yes, I can see my problem now. We went into it a little blind and semi unprepared. The want for baby chicks in our area right now is insane thus the reason behind our plan. I wish I had known about this website before we began. Thank you for your thoughts