Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

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Speaking of pictures.....I won't be able to call them the "Tinys" much longer! 4 weeks old, strong, active, curious and healthy!




@segeine That's a waterer with vertical nipples. I use them too. You can see mine in the background of this picture. I'm only using the blue one temporarily - we were having a few "sharing" issues with the Bigs so I stuck one of the chick waterers and another feeder in the run to make sure the Littles got their fair share.
 
The blue thing is a 3 gallon water bucket with 4 vertical spickets on the bottom. I bought it at Tractor Supply. Thanks Blooie for the advice about the height of the cave. I will not know for certain about the height until the chicks arrive tomorrow. I think it measures about 7in in front. My later shipment includes 6 speckled Sussex, 3 black australorps, and 3 gold comets. In another week I have also ordered a dozen straight run light Sussex. I wanted to try a variety of breeds to see which I liked best. Thanks for the advice.
 
Celtics33 said:
The blue thing is a 3 gallon water bucket with 4 vertical spickets on the bottom. I bought it at Tractor Supply. Thanks Blooie for the advice about the height of the cave. I will not know for certain about the height until the chicks arrive tomorrow. I think it measures about 7in in front. My later shipment includes 6 speckled Sussex, 3 black australorps, and 3 gold comets. In another week I have also ordered a dozen straight run light Sussex. I wanted to try a variety of breeds to see which I liked best. Thanks for the advice.
Click to expand...
WOW! You're gonna need an electric blanket and a full sized oven rack as a platform for that many!
lau.gif
 
Hi gang,

So what's is everyone's experience in introducing chicks to a broody hen, specifically are a week old chicks too hard to introduce to a broody? I am hoping that my Dark Cornish is finally broody again, she had a bare breast and is sitting on golf balls this am for hours. Our babies are a week old today and I was just curious what your experiences have been like. Thanks so much in advance for the knowledge you all share.
 
I wish you the best. I had a broody, she's been sitting on golf balls for about 10 days. I moved her to a coop so she didn't have other hens kicking her off her nest, and gave her 4 eggs from the bator last night. (2 of them, maybe more had internally pipped.) she accepted them, and sat tight on them. Later today I went out to check on her, and found her taking a snack, while her baby laid on it's back, and screamed. One egg pipped, one stripped of 75% of it's shell, intact very dry membrane, and the 4th internally pipped. She told me that while it was fun to sit on a nest full of golf balls, she had no intention of raising those noisy little brats. It appears that having chicks under her cured her of her broodiness.
 
lazy gardener said:
I wish you the best.  I had a broody, she's been sitting on golf balls for about 10 days.  I moved her to a coop so she didn't have other hens kicking her off her nest, and gave her 4 eggs from the bator last night.  (2 of them, maybe more had internally pipped.)  she accepted them, and sat tight on them.  Later today I went out to check on her, and found her taking a snack, while her baby laid on it's back, and screamed.  One egg pipped, one stripped of 75% of it's shell, intact very dry membrane, and the 4th internally pipped.  She told me that while it was fun to sit on a nest full of golf balls, she had no intention of raising those noisy little brats.  It appears that having chicks under her cured her of her broodiness.
Click to expand...

Yea, I am rethinking this as people have said the optimal time to do the intro has passed. It was pointed out it is just not about the hen accepting the chicks but the chicks accepting the hen. I guess I will just play it by ear at this time. I need to build my heating pad brooder which I can get started on after I get the pad.
 
Ok, so most of my babies arrived today
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Umm I ended up getting a few more from this place than I intended - oops - does anyone else have that problem? Yes, I'm probably going to need the heat blanket. In a matter of a few minutes everyone was eating and drinking with no problem. So glad I did the vertical water from the beginning. I don't know if I just waited until they were exhausted or what, but most of the chicks took a nap as soon as I put them in the cave. A few little rebels ran out a couple of times, but I think they got the jest of it pretty quick. All in all, I view today as a great success. Also, I did flatten my cave down a bit in height. I think its about right now.

 

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