Help Please!! Hen hatched a baby chicken...Now what.

[jcs89115]

My friend donated fertilized eggs to me for my broody hens..I don't have a rooster in my hen house. Well it happened we have one baby chick and possibly two on the way...between three hens nesting on the same eggs...

My coop is 8' by 12' and the nesting boxes and roosting area are about 2 feet off the ground. I do have room underneath...

My coop houses 12 hens and one turkey hen....they are all a year old...I bought them last year and raised them in a indoor brooder together. I have never had babies before this is my first time with letting mother nature take over....I have a ramp but not to each individual nesting box. I am worried about how the babies will get in and out of the coop. They are free range but I lock them up at night to keep the foxes out.

Now What?

Should I build a make shift brooding box inside the coop...Do the chicks need crumble? I just realized how much I don't know about mother nature doing its job...

Please any advice...I honestly thought it wouldn't happen...The eggs were transported over an hour away and the hens were not consistent with sitting on them...However, now that I have a baby I want to do everything possible to raise it up...

 

[azygous]

Yes, offer chick starter crumbles to both chick and broody hen, as well as water that the chick can't drown in.

The problem, though, will be that the rest of your flock is going to eating the crumbles and broody and chick will not get what they need. Also, baby will be vulnerable to injury if the broody is inexperienced. The other chickens may peck at the chick and hurt or kill it.

To be on the safe side, you could make a temporary safe enclosure in the coop for the pair. You will need to let the broody out each day to take care of business, but this should keep the chick safe for the first week.

After the first week, chicks have developed enough wing feathers to be able to handle hopping up and down from a six inch height, increasing abilities very quickly. This is why we provide a ramp for baby chicks. They will very quickly learn to use it.

Letting a hen with a small chick free range in an area with a lot of predators is asking to lose the chick, though. You might want to consider a temporary run until the chick is three or four months old and can handle itself outside the safe enclosure.