Hi All! New Chicken Mama- expected hatch date of Mother's Day Weekend!

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LakeLifeGardening

LakeLifeGardening

In the Brooder
May 3, 2023
8
24
29
Virginia
Hi All!! Thanks for allowing my to join! I am Elizabeth, first time chicken mama and so excited- didn't figure it would work out that they would hatch on Mother's Day weekend, but here we are. I am getting so nervous! I have 8 (started with 12) in my incubator currently and they should all be silkies or Polish's. I got the fertilized eggs for free from my friend and am so excited to get started! I love forums like this. Last year I joined one similar called 'the squirrel board' because I found my self raising about 1 week old baby squirrels after a neighbor felled a tree and had a nest in it. I had NO CLUE what I was doing but everyone was so helpful and 'The Boys' have been successfully returned to the wild and have had babies of their own that we interact with. We love animals in my house and everyone enjoys the new experiences. Here we go again with chickens! Thanks for having me and would love some tips and tricks for anything from diet (we want to be soy/corn free, non-gmo) and want them to be able to 'free range' as much as possible. Free ranging in our yard is going to be tough as we live on the water and have a lot of arial predators, including hawks, owls and eagles. Definitely would love any ideas anyone has! I am excited to go look through all of the posts and see what other tricks might have worked for similar situations! Thanks and happy to be here!
 
Welcome to BYC, Elizabeth. Free ranging silkies and polish are a terrible idea. Those crests impede their vision.
Successful free ranging requires the right breed and the right environment.
I'd encourage you to build a secure large, covered walkin run so that you can keep your new pets safe, and still allow them plenty of space.
 
Hello Elizabeth, and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.

You will need to build a properly designed and constructed coop and run for them. Use 1/2" hardware cloth to cover the sides of the run and form a 2' predator apron around the set up to prevent digging predators. The coop should have no openings larger than 1/2". Put lots of "stuff" in the largest run you can build for perching on and digging around in and the flock should be happy.
 
LakeLifeGardening said:
Hi All!! Thanks for allowing my to join! I am Elizabeth, first time chicken mama and so excited- didn't figure it would work out that they would hatch on Mother's Day weekend, but here we are. I am getting so nervous! I have 8 (started with 12) in my incubator currently and they should all be silkies or Polish's. I got the fertilized eggs for free from my friend and am so excited to get started! I love forums like this. Last year I joined one similar called 'the squirrel board' because I found my self raising about 1 week old baby squirrels after a neighbor felled a tree and had a nest in it. I had NO CLUE what I was doing but everyone was so helpful and 'The Boys' have been successfully returned to the wild and have had babies of their own that we interact with. We love animals in my house and everyone enjoys the new experiences. Here we go again with chickens! Thanks for having me and would love some tips and tricks for anything from diet (we want to be soy/corn free, non-gmo) and want them to be able to 'free range' as much as possible. Free ranging in our yard is going to be tough as we live on the water and have a lot of arial predators, including hawks, owls and eagles. Definitely would love any ideas anyone has! I am excited to go look through all of the posts and see what other tricks might have worked for similar situations! Thanks and happy to be here!
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Welcome to BYC!!
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow

So glad you decided to join us. Good luck with your hatch, keep us posted on it! I suggest you trim the feathers out of their eyes for better eye sight. They can wander and fall into ponds or be caught by predators easily if they can't see well. Enjoy this new adventure!
 

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