If a friend's hen is hatching "my" eggs.....

[satiglenn]

.... when is it safe for me to take the chicks away? I don't know anything about birds compared to other animals; do they need to stay with their mama for a certain amount of time? If so, when should I get them? These will be our very first chickens (we are SO excited, been planning for them for a long time.) But for some reason, it never occurred to me that they may need to be a certain age before separation.

 

[lightchick]

No they don't need to be a any special age, you can pick them up at 1 day old. You just need a heat lamp, cardboard box to keep them in, chick feeder, 1 quart chick waterer, and chick starter and grower. You need to keep them at 90 degrees the first week and then 5 degrees lower each week after.