Feeding baby chicks with free range hen....

[Jennn27]

So, I have a first-time momma hen. Yay!! BUT, do I need to do anything differently with her taking care of those? As far as feeding....I know they need starter feed, but I'm leaving them outside with her to care for. Do I need to feed them both starter? Mix it up? Just let them figure it out? Or what?

 

[azygous]

Anywhere the chicks have access you should provide chick starter only. It's perfectly fine for adult chickens to eat it for any length of time as long as you make oyster shell available to the adults.

 

[donrae]

congrats on your new babies! Best part of having chickens is watching momma raise babies, IMO.

Starter for everyone, works just fine. Momma won't need oyster shell until she starts laying again. If you have them with other birds, just give everyone starter, it's fine for anyone to eat.

 

[Jennn27]

Thank you!!

 

[Jennn27]

congrats on your new babies! Best part of having chickens is watching momma raise babies, IMO.

Starter for everyone, works just fine. Momma won't need oyster shell until she starts laying again. If you have them with other birds, just give everyone starter, it's fine for anyone to eat.

Yep...that's what I was wanting to do. I want to see her take care of her own babies!!

 

[song of joy]

Also - It helps to have a fairly sturdy feeder and waterer to reduce the likelihood of mamma hen knocking it over. Both need to be at ground level for the chicks, which makes it more likely they will get tipped over.

 

[donrae]

And, add in the fact that momma hens are scratching machines, they often tip over a feeder just by their over-enthusiastic scratching

 

[Jennn27]

Yep...I've learned that by this point. They are messy little buggers. I put a waterer and feeder in with her and the babies. We'll see how well this works by tomorrow. Not holding out a lot of hope for this arrangement.

I'll probably have to figure out a better way tomorrow. Thanks everyone!

Oh...here's a pic of proud Momma and babies!