How long to use medicated chick feed?

[KRack]

Local soil contains local pathogens, both good and bad ones. Your adult chickens have become resistant to the bad ones by being exposed to them over their lives, and the good pathogens live happily and productively in their guts.

Baby chicks can also build resistance to these bad pathogens by being exposed to them during the first couple of weeks when their immune systems are developing immunities to many things, just as human infants are gradually exposed to germs and developing resistance. And the good pathogens will install themselves in the baby guts, providing good intestinal health.

Bringing in a clump of living sod from your yard and given to the chicks to play with will expose them to very small amounts of good and bad pathogens and they will build up their immune systems from this exposure. There is even a very mild form of Marek's in the soil where there are local populations of wild turkeys that can confer some resistance to the chicken form of Marek's.

This is why many of us simply do not bother with medicated feed. It's benefits are overblown. There is also the fact that the medicated feed discourages the absorption of thiamine, a very crucial B-vitamin for new chicks. Chicks should be receiving the full benefit of all the nutrients in their feed as they are developing so rapidly. A deficiency can be quite problematic and many of us feel the risk isn't worth it.

This makes so much sense. Thank you!!

 

[Banana01]

I think I decided on using medicated chick feed for if/when the eggs under my hen, hatch. How long do I use medicated feed, and do I switch to normal layer crumbles after that?

How long will the chicks remain in their pen with their mother? My hens and chicks stay around three days, and i give them a feeder and water with starter feed. But after they leave the pen, they start to eat the outside food.

Sometimes they continue to get chick starter in the mornings and nights, but they eat other stuff during the day.

 

[KRack]

How long will the chicks remain in their pen with their mother? My hens and chicks stay around three days, and i give them a feeder and water with starter feed. But after they leave the pen, they start to eat the outside food.

Sometimes they continue to get chick starter in the mornings and nights, but they eat other stuff during the day.

I honestly have no idea what to do when the chick hatches. Should I seperate the mother and chick and put food and water near them? Leave them in the coop/nesting box they've been in? I'm winging it over here.

 

[Banana01]

I honestly have no idea what to do when the chick hatches. Should I seperate the mother and chick and put food and water near them? Leave them in the coop/nesting box they've been in? I'm winging it over here.

How many eggs does she have? I always put a feeder and water is front of the broody 24 hours after the first baby hatches. But i only have broods of two or three eggs. That way she will not have to leave the nest while they hatch. And the first three days they stay in the nest but they are eating and drinking.

Then after three days or so, i may relocate them to a ground floor box where the mother can leave and the babies can come and go as they please. I like it when they can return to the nest at night to sleep and leave on their own in the mornings. But you can keep the medicated feed available to them of you want. They will eat it for two weeks if you let them, but by then they are eating the outside food that the rest of the flock eats purina pellets, corn, grains, etc

 

[azygous]

It's obvious to anyone that broody hen and new chicks require food and water very soon after the chicks hatch. The hen will get the chicks out of the nest and will immediately be looking for food to feed them and water to show them to drink. The main problem you will face is protecting this food and water from being devoured by the rest of the flock, leaving the hen and chick with nothing.

No one can tell you how to do it, but you must solve this problem somehow. Being confronted with this problem in my first efforts having a broody hatch chicks, I constructed special wings to the coop and run to be dedicated to a broody to safely incubate eggs without risk of other hens getting into the nest and breaking the eggs to keeping the chicks safe from the flock until they get past their initial vulnerable state.

Keeping a broody nest in the main population carries risks. Some people are fine with this. Others are not, and we take steps to remove the risks.

 

[KRack]

How many eggs does she have? I always put a feeder and water is front of the broody 24 hours after the first baby hatches. But i only have broods of two or three eggs. That way she will not have to leave the nest while they hatch. And the first three days they stay in the nest but they are eating and drinking.

Then after three days or so, i may relocate them to a ground floor box where the mother can leave and the babies can come and go as they please. I like it when they can return to the nest at night to sleep and leave on their own in the mornings. But you can keep the medicated feed available to them of you want. They will eat it for two weeks if you let them, but by then they are eating the outside food that the rest of the flock eats purina pellets, corn, grains, etc

She only has one egg under her now, and it's developing well. Should hatch this Saturday or Sunday. I was going to try to put food and water in the coop, but I'm not sure how that will work at night time. Does she need it in there at night time?

 

[KRack]

It's obvious to anyone that broody hen and new chicks require food and water very soon after the chicks hatch. The hen will get the chicks out of the nest and will immediately be looking for food to feed them and water to show them to drink. The main problem you will face is protecting this food and water from being devoured by the rest of the flock, leaving the hen and chick with nothing.

No one can tell you how to do it, but you must solve this problem somehow. Being confronted with this problem in my first efforts having a broody hatch chicks, I constructed special wings to the coop and run to be dedicated to a broody to safely incubate eggs without risk of other hens getting into the nest and breaking the eggs to keeping the chicks safe from the flock until they get past their initial vulnerable state.

Keeping a broody nest in the main population carries risks. Some people are fine with this. Others are not, and we take steps to remove the risks.

Well I just planned on sticking food and water in the coop and checking it periodically lol. I haven't separated her the whole time although that probably would have been nice for her. She's been in the same nesting box in the coop they all go in, this whole time. I bought starter feed, and have a little waterer that I was going to potentially put marbles in to help prevent the little chick from drowning. That's been the extent of my planning.

 

[azygous]

In other words, your strategy is "learn as you go", which is valid and can work. However, the value of coming here for advice is to benefit from others who have learned as they went about having a broody hatch chicks so that you might shorten that learning curve while reducing risks of an unexpected tragedy from occurring.

My very last attempt at having a broody hatch eggs ended in just such a tragedy in spite of all the prep of a dedicated wing. I made the mistake of trusting that a hen pal of the broody would be good with the lone chick that hatched as she had never given me any indication she might hurt the chick.

Some friends stopped by, I showed off the newly hatched chick and left the chick and the broody in the coop but out of the nest box on the floor of the coop, expecting the broody to cover the chick or escort it back to the nest. I planned to come right back to be sure the chick had found its way back underneath the broody, but I got sidetracked with these visitors.

When I returned to the broody coop, the chick was mauled and bloody lying on the floor opposite the nest where the broody had returned without the chick, leaving the chick vulnerable and to get chilled.

What I figured happened was the broody wasn't ready to stop sitting in the nest even though I had removed the unhatched non-viable eggs, leaving none to sit on. The chick wasn't able to find its way back to the nest and became chilled and unconscious. The other hen likely saw it as a food opportunity since the chick was inert. Since the chick was so badly mauled, it wasn't worth trying to revive it with warming. Instead, I had to euthanize what remained of the brand new tiny life.

 

[KRack]

In other words, your strategy is "learn as you go", which is valid and can work. However, the value of coming here for advice is to benefit from others who have learned as they went about having a broody hatch chicks so that you might shorten that learning curve while reducing risks of an unexpected tragedy from occurring.

My very last attempt at having a broody hatch eggs ended in just such a tragedy in spite of all the prep of a dedicated wing. I made the mistake of trusting that a hen pal of the broody would be good with the lone chick that hatched as she had never given me any indication she might hurt the chick.

Some friends stopped by, I showed off the newly hatched chick and left the chick and the broody in the coop but out of the nest box on the floor of the coop, expecting the broody to cover the chick or escort it back to the nest. I planned to come right back to be sure the chick had found its way back underneath the broody, but I got sidetracked with these visitors.

When I returned to the broody coop, the chick was mauled and bloody lying on the floor opposite the nest where the broody had returned without the chick, leaving the chick vulnerable and to get chilled.

What I figured happened was the broody wasn't ready to stop sitting in the nest even though I had removed the unhatched non-viable eggs, leaving none to sit on. The chick wasn't able to find its way back to the nest and became chilled and unconscious. The other hen likely saw it as a food opportunity since the chick was inert. Since the chick was so badly mauled, it wasn't worth trying to revive it with warming. Instead, I had to euthanize what remained of the brand new tiny life.

Yeah, that is my strategy mostly. But I did come asking questions because I’d like to use all the tools I can. Learning as I go has definitely had some heartache I would have preferred to avoid.

Thank you for sharing this insight. I have a dog kennel I could keep mom and baby in for a few days, but I’m not sure if that’s sufficient protection at night time. Would I move them before the egg hatches, or after?

The broody hen hasn’t left the nest once on her own. I’ve had to get her out once a day since I realized she wasn’t leaving to eat and poop. The other hens aren’t always super nice to her either lately, so I am worried about how they’ll treat the chick.

 

[azygous]

Once a broody has installed herself on eggs, it's risky to move her, and close to hatch or after hatch, it's no less risky. You really are on your own here making these calls.

One more piece of advice. Trust your intuition. No matter how long one has been keeping chickens, their ways and behaviors become embedded in our subconscious. There it resides as valuable information ready to tap into at a moments notice. Your intuition is what efficiently retrieves it. It will feel like a contrary voice sometimes, and our inclination is to ignore it. Don't.