Help! Orphaned babies!

[summerhatch]

Please help! I have two pet hens - one who just finished raising 3 chicks from eggs we placed under her when she turned broody...We just gave away the three 8 wk old babies yesterday...At our friend's barn today, a horse stepped on a mother hen and killed her, leaving her 6 one week old chicks orphans! The farmer gave them to my daughter to raise. Do we introduce them to our two hens? Keep them inside under a lamp? put them outside? What do we do?

 

[Tiramisu]

It really depends :\\ some hens will take in chicks, some people if they get chicks put them under a mother after just hatching some chicks. But she might reject them.

 

[CCFarms9559]

You are going to have to keep them under a heat lamp and separated. There's whole sections on here about what to do with them. Better start reading! They should do fine. Chick starter, shallow water dishes, heat lamp. Enjoy!

 

[chicks4kids]

I probably wouldn't give them to your hens. You could try it at night while their sleeping and hope that they accept them, but it's iffy. Personally, I would set up a brooder and keep them in there.

Also, If you could set up a temporary pen outside for them with the other girls (yet keeping them seperate) so that everyone can start to get aquainted during some playtime during the day, that would be nice too. If they're a week old, they should be kept at around 85* F. So if daytime temps. are about that, they could spend alot of time out there but yet still be kept in the brooder at night. Good luck!