How do I keep their food separate?

[babsh]

I have a momma hen with 8 babies who have recently joined our flock of 8 adult birds. How do I make sure the babies have chick food and keep the adults from eating it? So far, they forage all day and when they "go to bed" for the night (we keep them separate at night) I put a dish in for them. So they get some in the morning. But when I put their dish in the run, my big girls eat it all.

I'm assuming this is a common problem if you have a broody with chicks. how do you handle this?

TIA

 

[TheBuff]

keep them seperate during day. Bigger hen will attack the little ones,

 

[bethandjoeync]

we just posted about kinda the same issue you are having someone gave us the answer we needed hopefully it will help you. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=176276

 

[babsh]

Quote:
That does help, thanks!

However, now I'm a bit freaked about having the chicks with the rest of the flock! I have heard totally opposing opinions on this. So far, the babies are in with mom and the rest of our flock (8 adults) and it seems to be going fine. I separate them at night. I have seen the babies get pecked by one of the big girls, but then mom fluffs up and they go away.

Barb

 

[bethandjoeync]

i think it really depends on your flock. We read that you should keep them seperate until they get the same size but we tried seeing how they would do. We keep them in a seperate pen for about a week then we let them out and supervised alot. However everyone seemed to get along well. There is small amounts of pecking but thats when the babies get to close and nosey but a small peck and everything is back to normal. They eat together fine and even roost at night together. You can check out our page and see some pics of them all together.