Help! We're grandparents!

[chickens really]

I would just wait till she hatches and being your not ready for them let Momma raise them amongst the flock. I put my Chicks and Momma back with my Flock at around 5 days old..I set up a feeder and water station for Chicks too.

 

[natemoore1986]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-my-walk-in-chicken-coop.695892/#post-9807324

Here are some pictures of our walk-in coop. I have since added an additional run that is probably about 1.5x larger than what's under roof, which is 6' x 9'. You can see what I was talking about with the tree branch ladder leading up to the roost.

I've got a pull-it shut automatic door on the coop, and a manual door separating the inner run from the outer run. So, you think it would be better to put the hen and the three chicks in an 18" x 24" dog crate inside the inner run?

She is still sitting on one egg that hasn't hatched yet. Should I move her and the unhatched egg to the crate? How long can the new chicks live without food and water while they're up in the egg laying box with her?

As of now, the three chicks are under a heat lamp inside my workshop, and they're moving around and pecking at the starter feed.

 

[chickens really]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-my-walk-in-chicken-coop.695892/#post-9807324

Here are some pictures of our walk-in coop. I have since added an additional run that is probably about 1.5x larger than what's under roof, which is 6' x 9'. You can see what I was talking about with the tree branch ladder leading up to the roost.

I've got a pull-it shut automatic door on the coop, and a manual door separating the inner run from the outer run. So, you think it would be better to put the hen and the three chicks in an 18" x 24" dog crate inside the inner run?

She is still sitting on one egg that hasn't hatched yet. Should I move her and the unhatched egg to the crate? How long can the new chicks live without food and water while they're up in the egg laying box with her?

As of now, the three chicks are under a heat lamp inside my workshop, and they're moving around and pecking at the starter feed.

Don't remove them from the Hen ..Put them back..Put her and Chicks and the egg into the crate...Put feed and water in too...

 

[The Phantom]

It is funny how she bites the camera at the end. Lol

 

[chickens really]

I understand you probably stressed..
Get the crate ready and put the Hen in with her egg and Chicks..They and her need to bond and imprint..

 

[pennyJo1960]

Just for grins, I let my sweetest buff orpington, who went broody, sit on four eggs. Haven't been really involved in this, except bringing her food and water, which she usually refused. Tonight, I noticed that she look very, very thirsty. I brought her a container full of water, and she drank and drank and drank. Then I noticed the fuzzy little things under her. Two of the four eggs have already hatched! What a surprise!

My coop/run set up is an elevated coop with a large, covered run below it. There is an additional run that the inner run connects to. She is in a nesting box inside the coop, and the rest of the flock is in with her: seven hens and a rooster.

What do I need to do? They're cage free, not free range, so the other adult chickens will ultimately be able to get to the chicks.

I can move them into my 24'x24' workshop for now, then build a temporary coop for them. Just need to get through these next few days. Hopefully, the other two will hatch soon.

Oh yeah, they hatched on mother's day. Pictures coming soon.

agree with @chickens really put her with the chicks do not separate them please they will be much safer keep them with the hen

 

[natemoore1986]

I found a section of portable doggie fence and made a decent size cage. She didn't peck me one time as I picked her up and transferred her to the new nesting box. She sat back down on the one egg, and her chicks dug back into her feathers.

I offered her three more eggs from this morning. She immediately accepted the dark brown egg (cuckoo maran) and the light brown egg (buff orpington) and tucked them under herself. She looked at the blue EE egg as if it were some strange rock. Would have nothing to do with it.

I don't know if I'm being a jerk putting two more eggs under her, but if she wants to be broody, I'm open to it. I think we might start turning our over-abundance of fresh eggs into meat birds. I hunt deer and hog, but it will take some getting used to lopping the heads off of birds you helped raised from chicks, then eating them, but that's the way things used to be before factory farms.

 

[chickens really]

I found a section of portable doggie fence and made a decent size cage. She didn't peck me one time as I picked her up and transferred her to the new nesting box. She sat back down on the one egg, and her chicks dug back into her feathers.

I offered her three more eggs from this morning. She immediately accepted the dark brown egg (cuckoo maran) and the light brown egg (buff orpington) and tucked them under herself. She looked at the blue EE egg as if it were some strange rock. Would have nothing to do with it.

I don't know if I'm being a jerk putting two more eggs under her, but if she wants to be broody, I'm open to it. I think we might start turning our over-abundance of fresh eggs into meat birds. I hunt deer and hog, but it will take some getting used to lopping the heads off of birds you helped raised from chicks, then eating them, but that's the way things used to be before factory farms.

Great till they get out...Cardboard sides help...

 

[chickens really]

She won't set more eggs ...Once that last hatches she will go into Momma mode and Raise her Chicks..She will not hatch those two eggs you just introduced...

 

[natemoore1986]

She won't set more eggs ...Once that last hatches she will go into Momma mode and Raise her Chicks..She will not hatch those two eggs you just introduced...

We'll see. I offered her two more eggs from today, even the blue one she rejected earlier, and she tucked both of them under herself. She hasn't gotten up all day. Won't be a big deal if she doesn't though.

I am concerned that the fourth egg hasn't hatched yet. It definitely has a fully developed chick in it, but is a day or two late. Of course, it might have been layed a day or two later than the others. Guess when I smell rotten egg, I'll know?