hen vs brooder

[noitulover]

my broody is separated from my flock... she is inside in a big brooder with the chicks... when they hit 4 or 5 weeks (depending on their feathering out), i will move them to an "outside brooder", which is like a mini-coop with a small run, to get them used to going into the coop at night, and out in the run during the day.... when they hit around 7-8 weeks, are 100% feathered out and they have enough size on them to handle the big girls, they will move into 1/4 fenced off area of the big coop. After about a week, I will let them loose, and they will mingle with flock!

i know, it's a complicated mess of moving them into different boxes and coops and brooders and such, but the integration has been painless thus far... so i'll stick with my methods! haha

one group never got to the outside brooder stage, and even as adults, they don't like free-ranging as much as the others do... i open the run doors, and they stay inside the coop... silly chickens, but i know exactly why! they never learned really how to free range...

 

[Marcy]

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Not a space thing, for sure- we have a great big coop and run, for the number of girls we have. But I did wonder about the bullying thing... we had bought grown-up birds from someone local, and it turned out they had lived with hundreds of other birds so he had clipped their beaks- and of course my hens hadn't had that done to them. So maybe they weren't on very equal footing that way? Or maybe they just weren't spoiled rotten and expecting to be the boss of everything like the girls I raised from chicks are

 

[noitulover]

could be either of those or both!!! i had a rescue battery hen once, and she was definitely low on the pecking order... she had a clipped beak and didn't know how to be "free" chicken...

 

[Marcy]

ok, if I'm going to try this, I have some specifc questions:

1. For some reason my hens have always liked to lay their eggs outside. I don't know if they disliked the nesting boxes I built or the wire floor inside the coop or what, but they all laid their eggs in a corner in the run. I gave them a little plastic igloo-shaped thing intended as a hideout for outdoor cats, and they all lay in there now. So my broody silkie gets shoved outside a couple times a day while the others lay their eggs. I just built them new nesting boxes which I am installing today, but if the Silkie likes to stay in the "outdoor nesting box" do you think it's ok to put the chicks in there?

2. I have a rat issue in the run... they never have hurt a chicken, and I'm in the process of making my entire run and coop utterly rat-proof, but until that time, would it be too dangerous to have the chicks out there, even with a mam protecting them? They come in and run around at night.

3. I heard some people bring the Silkie in and put her in the brooder rather than putting the chicks in the nesting box. If I do that, it will alleviate the concerns of my first two questions, but will the flock still accept the mama-and-chicks thing when I do put them outside?

 

[noitulover]

1. I would not leave her and the chicks in the same place as the others, especially if they have picked on weaker chickens before... They will most certainly pick on chicks, and broody silkies are tough, but i don't think they can fend off the whole flock every day, nor should they have to!

2. If you have a rat problem, then definitely move the silkie and chicks somewhere else. Rats will eat the chicks. The silkie will protect them, but with 10 to look after, that is a lot of work... She will be worn out from fending off the flock during the day and the rats at night... Definitely put her in a separate place with her chicks... Somewhere with hardware cloth so that rats/snakes can't get in, and chicks can't get out... or bring her inside.

3. If possibly, fence off a part of your coop for just the silkie and the chicks... It will have to be hardware cloth or something similar that rats/snakes can't get in, and chicks can't get out... If you can't do that, bring them in.

 

[Marcy]

I can definitely bring them in AND split the coop and run in two for when they get big enough to go outside... but in that case, is there any benefit to putting the broody silkie in with the chicks at all? Would I be better off just having the chicks in a brooder with a heat lamp?

 

[PunkinPeep]

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If i'm understanding correctly, your silkie is broody, and you're thinking to put some day old chicks under her, right?

With mine who actually hatched their own eggs, once the chicks were hatched, i could move them anywhere, and they would stay with their chicks.

Is she sitting in the outdoor nestbox all night every night?

If she is, i would say to put the chicks under her at night so she thinks she hatched them. Then, in the morning, move her and the chicks to a different place. I used a kitty litter box - the kind with a lid - and it worked really well. I had to take out the little flipping door, of course. After about a week, the chicks can get out of the box, so it doesn't work so much after that. My point is.....if you have them in something like that, then you can move her to safety (from the rats - how awful) at night, then move her back out in the run during the day. She'll probably stay right there in the thing you put her in for the first day or two that she has the chicks - and then she'll start running around with them, showing them the ropes. Make sure you have a waterer the babies can get to - and feed the mama and chicks separately from the flocks food, and you should be good to go.

With the kitty litter boxes, i had to help the babies in and out of the box, which was great because i could contain them to move them around. Now i have to wait until after dark, when they've settled next to their mamas, to move them if they're not in the best place. But the mamas would just go in with the chicks, and i had everyone where i wanted them.

 

[Marcy]

She does spend her nights in the outdoor nestbox... I've even tried moving her after all the other girls go to bed in the coop by picking her up and putting her on the perch in there, but she just squawks at me and flaps back out to the nest box, even if there aren't any eggs in there. Even if I take her out during the day and take the nest box away she just sits on the ground and flips whatever straw she can reach up onto her back. Luckily the rats have never seemed to bother her.

I have a cardboard brooder all ready to go... maybe I could just move that out to the run in daytime and back in at night?

 

[PunkinPeep]

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I think that would work.

 

[noitulover]

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yes, slip the chicks underneath of her, then after she accepts them, move them all into a separate place... inside the coop but fenced in, or inside...

the reason it is better to have her with them, is she teaches them to eat and drink, they won't get pasty butt, you won't have to dip their beaks or anything... the hen will take care of them... you keep the water fresh and the food bin full, and you're set... you don't even have to have a heat lamp...