How long do I keep chicks and their mom separate??

[jeremyhodges]

I have a broody silkie who is sitting on two fertilized eggs. This is my first time hatching eggs with a broody hen. After a few times of her getting off the nest to eat and then returning to the wrong nest box and incubating infertile eggs, I put up hardware cloth in my chicken coop to close her inside. She has access to food and water and half the coop with her nest box, my other 4 hens have the other half of the coop and three nest boxes. Her eggs are looking great and should hatch tomorrow or the next day. How long should I keep her and her chicks separated from the rest of the flock? I'd like to socialize them as soon as possible, but don't want anyone to get hurt. I have no roosters, just a total of 5 pullets. Will my silkie defend her chicks if the other chickens get aggressive?

 

[SIMZ]

This has worked for me in the past: I put regular field fencing around the hen and chicks (like you did with the hardware cloth) inside the coop or run with the other chickens. The field fencing is large enough to allow the chicks to run through it, but keeps the hen inside. Therefore, the other chickens get used to seeing those chicks running around, but allows the chicks to run back in to mom if they're threatened in anyway.

It's worked very well for me. After a few weeks I open up the fence and let them mingle, while keeping a close eye to make sure there aren't any problems. The more room they all have, the better.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

You don't need to be in any hurry because big footed hens can trample tiny chicks, plus you have the issue of the chicks eating the hens' layer feed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This has worked for me in the past:  I put regular field fencing around the hen and chicks (like you did with the hardware cloth) inside the coop or run with the other chickens.  The field fencing is large enough to allow the chicks to run through it, but keeps the hen inside.  Therefore, the other chickens get used to seeing those chicks running around, but allows the chicks to run back in to mom if they're threatened in anyway. 

It's worked very well for me.  After a few weeks I open up the fence and let them mingle, while keeping a close eye to make sure there aren't any problems.  The more room they all have, the better. 

Do you realize how scary this is? It's just not natural. A broody hen cannot protect her chick if she is in jail and the chick is mingling with the flock. I lost a chick once when it go into a pen of 8 week olds and Mama could not get in there to protect it.

I’m very aware that most hens will not go out of their way to attack a chick. At most the majority of hens will peck a chick to remind it that it is bad chicken etiquette for that little chick to invade the personal space of its elders. But occasionally you will get a hen that will chase a chick with intent to harm. As I said, it does not happen often but it does happen. I’ve seen it a few times. Mama quickly knocks the snot out of her to teach her to leave her babies alone.

I use the method that has been pretty common on small farms for thousands of years. I let the broody hatch with the flock, decide when to bring the chicks off the nest, and let her raise them with the flock. I’ve never lost a chick to another flock member doing this. I do think that it is important that the broody have some room to work with. If they are shoehorned right on top of each other in a tiny space that makes it a lot harder on Mama.

JeremyHodges you are dealing with living animals. No one can give you any guarantees what will happen with them. But I find the more I interfere with letting a broody raise the chicks by herself the more damage I do.

 

[SIMZ]

I sure don't want to give scary advice.....maybe I should clarify a few things, because I've had some scary experiences Ridgerunner has had when I've had areas that were blocked off and the chicks were trapped. The way I mentioned made it so there WEREN'T blocked off areas that the chicks could get stuck in.

The broody coop is inside an area where the rest of the flock are. The fence makes a large run area for the hen and chicks inside the main run. The chicks stay pretty close to the hen when they're the size that can fit through the fence, so at best they're getting a few yards from her before she "clucks" them back through the fence. No, the mom can't get to them through the fence, but the big chickens can't get in their coop and chase them or eat the chick food.

Please disregard my way if it seems unsafe or unwise. I'm not an expert. I did raise 2 batches of chicks this way and a 3rd batch with a broody. They all mingled just fine when put together - it worked well for me.

 

[jeremyhodges]

Do you realize how scary this is? It's just not natural. A broody hen cannot protect her chick if she is in jail and the chick is mingling with the flock. I lost a chick once when it go into a pen of 8 week olds and Mama could not get in there to protect it.

I’m very aware that most hens will not go out of their way to attack a chick. At most the majority of hens will peck a chick to remind it that it is bad chicken etiquette for that little chick to invade the personal space of its elders. But occasionally you will get a hen that will chase a chick with intent to harm. As I said, it does not happen often but it does happen. I’ve seen it a few times. Mama quickly knocks the snot out of her to teach her to leave her babies alone.

I use the method that has been pretty common on small farms for thousands of years. I let the broody hatch with the flock, decide when to bring the chicks off the nest, and let her raise them with the flock. I’ve never lost a chick to another flock member doing this. I do think that it is important that the broody have some room to work with. If they are shoehorned right on top of each other in a tiny space that makes it a lot harder on Mama.

JeremyHodges you are dealing with living animals. No one can give you any guarantees what will happen with them. But I find the more I interfere with letting a broody raise the chicks by herself the more damage I do.

Thank you, everyone, for your help. I think I will keep them separated for a few days while they figure out life outside of an egg and then open things up on Tuesday when I'm off of work for three days in a row and can watch how things go. I have one external pip and one internal pip right now, so the chicks will probably hatch on Sunday. My other question is regarding feed. I know that chicks shouldn't eat layer feed because the calcium content can hurt their kidneys, so I wanted to ask what people do for their flocks when young chicks are present. My options would be to have chick feed on the ground and accessible to the little guys and continue having the adult feed hanging and out of reach, or just feed the entire flock the chick feed and provide oyster shell to my layers to make up for the calcium. But if I do that, does it need to be unmedicated chick feed? When I first got my 5 girls I fed them medicated feed to build up a tolerance against coccidia, but I wasn't sure if medicated feed would mean I couldn't eat my layers' eggs. Sorry if this rambling was hard to follow!!

 

[ChickenLegs13]

Saturday evening I had a young hen & 6 chicks come out from under my house where she'd been setting. They were already a day or 2 old because their egg tooth was gone. When I spotted them 3 cats were hanging around licking their lips & staring, they might have already ate some because I had crawled under the house several weeks ago and knew the hen was sitting 13 eggs.
I needed a safe pen and I always avoid mixing chicks and grown chickens but the only pen available was the Mean Hen Pen. The MHP houses 5 games and game/bantam mixes & a large stupid rooster that are too agressive & disruptive to keep with my layer flock.
I put the hen & chicks in there and some starter in the feeder and wonder of wonders, it was uneventful. Everybody gathered around the feeder and started eating like they had been best buddies all their life. One of the old game hens was pecky at first but nothing serious. The stupid rooster stood there for about 5 minutes yelling RHAAAAAAAAA RHAAAAAAAA RAAAAAAAA over & over. Not sure was that was about.

 

[WickeeChickee]

Do you realize how scary this is? It's just not natural. A broody hen cannot protect her chick if she is in jail and the chick is mingling with the flock. I lost a chick once when it go into a pen of 8 week olds and Mama could not get in there to protect it.

I’m very aware that most hens will not go out of their way to attack a chick. At most the majority of hens will peck a chick to remind it that it is bad chicken etiquette for that little chick to invade the personal space of its elders. But occasionally you will get a hen that will chase a chick with intent to harm. As I said, it does not happen often but it does happen. I’ve seen it a few times. Mama quickly knocks the snot out of her to teach her to leave her babies alone.

I use the method that has been pretty common on small farms for thousands of years. I let the broody hatch with the flock, decide when to bring the chicks off the nest, and let her raise them with the flock. I’ve never lost a chick to another flock member doing this. I do think that it is important that the broody have some room to work with. If they are shoehorned right on top of each other in a tiny space that makes it a lot harder on Mama.

JeremyHodges you are dealing with living animals. No one can give you any guarantees what will happen with them. But I find the more I interfere with letting a broody raise the chicks by herself the more damage I do.

Just did this with my broody and chicks. Kept them separated to one end of coop with their nest where the other hens could see but not touch. On day four Mama had somehow gotten herself and chicks through the barrier I'd made and out into the run with the rest of the hens (5 BOs) who only showed a mild curiosity. Mama stationed herself over chicks protectively and was keeping a good eye out in all directions. After following the good advice I got on here from donrae and others to let Mama protect her babies because she knows best, I truly believe that this is the best way. On a funny note, one of my hens, Maybelline, ran up to me and kept clucking purposefully while looking from me to the chicks! She was either telling on Broody for being an unwed mother (since we have no roo), or asking, "Where's MY chicks? " I told her when SHE goes broody then I'll get her some chicks to raise too. Yes I talk to my hens...

 

[SIMZ]

Ok....a few questions about this:

My area is large (by backyard standards) and fenced in, but not like a total free range situation where hens can have nests under porches or in barns. So, I could put the broody in my little broody coop with no separation and the other chickens would leave her be?

What do you do about food? As soon as I open up the fence the other pigs (oops....I mean chickens! lol) rush in and devour the chick starter.

Now I'm curious.....

 

[WickeeChickee]

I have a chick feeder/waterer right in front of the nesting box where broody and chicks are. Replaced all feed with flock raiser and added oyster shell dish by big feeder under coop. Put big feeder/waterer on ground instead of hanging so chicks have access when mama takes them out of coop. They all coexist. Today when mama and babies left nesting box another hen jumped in to lay since that had been everybody's favorite prior to mama going broody. Mama just hunkered down in a corner with babies while the other hen layed. All that being said. I have a flock entirely made up of gentle and sweet BOs so I think that accounts for a good bit of the peacefulness. It worked out for me. Keep an eye on things and have a backup plan if you plan on trying it. Good luck!