does mama provide food for chicks?

[babyworms]

Hi everyone! My bantam's just hatched her first baby, and as a first time chicken Hatcher I was just wondering, what do we do about food for the baby? It's just baby and mama in a coop together at the moment so there's no contest for food, but I was wondering if we have to give them special food or if mama will sort it out herself?
Thanks so much!

 

[Judy]

She will teach them to eat whatever she is fed, so you need to feed both chick starter then grower. This will be fine for mama as she won't lay while raising chicks. If you let a broody raise chicks in with a flock of laying hens, you feed everyone what the chick should be eating, and provide oyster shell separately for the hens. The chicks don't usually bother the oyster shell.