First time letting broodys raise newborns - critique my setup please

[HereForTheChicks]

I raised a handful of store-bought chickens indoors last year but this is my first time letting broody chickens hatch and raise them in the coop. After spending a few hours admiring how cute the day-old chicks are, it's time to get down to business.

Current setup: 2 broody hens. One with 1 baby, the other with 2 babies. Keeping the "families" separated. Each family has a 28"x16"x18" box to sit all day on a 2-inch bed of pine shavings and tiny bit of diatomaceous earth. Each with separate starter feed and water. Daily high temp 80, nightly low 65.

The plan:
-Carry momma chickens out to poop 2x/day
-Remove food & water from coop every night (for bugs)
-After 5 days old, add baby grit to food
-After 2 weeks old, give them an hour of outside time at the hottest part of the day, and make a bigger space for them to hang out during the rest of the day.
-Not sure what to do after that

Thank you!!

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning.

Broody girls typically will leave the nest once a day to poop, eat and maybe bathe. I would not pen the mamas or try to remove them from the nests. They need to do all this on their own schedule.

Babies are typically out and about as soon as all have hatched or within a couple days of the first hatching. This builds up their immune systems by being exposed to the dirt and mamas start teaching them to forage right away. It would be better to let the mamas do what they do best. Chickens are flock animals, two babies per broody would be better so the chicks have someone their own age to grow with.

There should always be grit available, from day one. They will learn to forage, eating bugs and other stuff, and need that grit to grind their food.

I have had many chicks hatched by broodies and the moms will protect them from the rest of the flock. Being with the flock teaches them etiquette and they are members from a young age. I’ve never had an issue with an adult chicken harming a baby that was hatched here. They might get a peck here and there from the bigs, but nothing more. They will stick to their mom like glue and she will do the same with them.

Chickens have been hatching and raising babies far longer than humans have been intervening. They know what to do, let them do it.

 

[HereForTheChicks]

OK thanks! I tried letting them free-range with the rest of the flock but because the mommas are so broody, they sit in the laying boxes instead of walking around. And like you said, the babies are stuck to them like glue, so they stay in the laying boxes too.

Should I force them to hang out in a fenced area in the yard?

 

[igorsMistress]

OK thanks! I tried letting them free-range with the rest of the flock but because the mommas are so broody, they sit in the laying boxes instead of walking around. And like you said, the babies are stuck to them like glue, so they stay in the laying boxes too.

Should I force them to hang out in a fenced area in the yard?

I would get them out of the nests absolutely. Lock them out of there, they need to get out and about with the babies. If you can fence off a smaller area at first and put the food and water out there that will draw them out. Of just put the food and water out there and don’t fence it off, whichever works for you. Make sure there are nesting materials on the floor for them to snuggle with the babies at night if the babies can’t get back in the nests. They will join the flock slowly but they will.

I had a mama hatch babies unexpectedly so I took the food and water to her. That just made everyone else go over there to eat that food and made my life hard.

The next time I didn’t do that, she had to bring the babies to the food. Much better for all involved. The babies were less fearful, more independent and my life was easier too.

 

[Perris]

OK thanks! I tried letting them free-range with the rest of the flock but because the mommas are so broody, they sit in the laying boxes instead of walking around. And like you said, the babies are stuck to them like glue, so they stay in the laying boxes too.

Should I force them to hang out in a fenced area in the yard?

newly hatched chicks sleep a lot - like human babies - and they will be up and about in bursts for longer each day. In between they will want to snuggle up in the broody's plumage, and the broody will patiently wait while they nap. I would trust your broodies to know instinctively what to do, and not force your or other people's ideas about what to do on them. They have been doing it without us for thousands of years.