hen raising chicks questions?

[gritsar]

L0rraine I would try some scrambled egg maybe sprinkled on top of their chick food to see if you can jumpstart their eating. I'm sure mama hen could use a little boost by now too.

 

[L0rraine]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will try this.

 

[My Lay D's]

I just set 6 Bantam Cochin eggs under my broody Silkie this afternoon. This will be my first hatch of babies and I am super excited! I have a question regarding chick food. While mom is brooding does she just need to eat her regular food or should I have her eating the food the chicks will be eating when they are hatched? Any suggestions on medicated vs. non would be awesome as well!

 

[calboy147]

We are finally going to hatch some chicks!!!!
Our hen Early is going to do the job. Now how do I do this? I have never had a hen hatch before.

I know that she will sit on the eggs in the coop with the other hens, but when the chicks hatch, dont I need to separate them from the other chickens, because of Coccsityosis?
I know that the chicks would get Coccsityiosis from the other chickens, but why dont they get it from the mother hen?



1. How faraway do the chicks need to be from the other chickens? Our 4 chickens are free range a lot. Does that mean I cant let the babies out on the ground at all??? (Our yard is almost an acre) I want to keep the babies as close to the coop, and cages as possible.

2. Should I vaccinate them for Coccsityosis? And or anything else? How do I do this and where do I buy the stuff?

3. How old do the chicks have to be to meet the other chickens?

4. Do the chicks need their own water with marbles? If so, how old till they use the water without them, and would the mother hen use it to?

5. We have two dog runs that we use for our chickens. They are about ten feet apart
with a coop in between them. One we dont use very often, could we keep the chicks and Early in there, or is that too close to the other chickens?


Is their anything else I need to know?
(PS. How old are roosters when they first learn to crow?)

Thank you all so very much

If the hen hatched them and is mommying them you dont have to do anything. Unless maybe mommy was the bottom of pecking order to begin with. then maybe.
In my flock one or two other hens end up becoming surrogate moms as well. Rodger my huge rooster just seems to try to avoid the chicks.