Y'all, I'm trying to run a sustainable flock of 20+ Buff Orpingtons. By this I mean a flock that is healthy w/o a lot of medications, that are good foragers, and can raise their own babies. I don't have enough resources to have separate breeding clans, so i do bring in an unrelated replacement rooster every 2 years. I have about 2-3 girls that go broody regularly, and one heck of a broody bantam. All hatch out about 8 out of 10 eggs, 6 out of 8 for the banty, and are good mothers. Last year i lost every hatch to Mushy Chick Syndrome. Figured that out and this year let the hens brood very clean eggs in clean, fresh nest boxes. I let the hens and chicks out into the main coop on day two, and here it is a week later, and i've started to lose one chick per day. They do great eating the tinier bits of the chickens feed and they get water in their own waterer and then they get diarrea one day and are dead the next. So i'm guessing it's still Mushy Chick. I've got them on Sulmet in their water for Coccidia and I'm off to buy medicated chick feed to try to save the rest of this hatch. Going forward I'm thinking I need a broody house away from the regular coop where the hens can hatch out their babies in peace and then the babies can be on a cleaner patch of ground to build up their immunities before graduating to the big coop. My garden chicken-tractor is occupied at the moment with 15-week old replacement hens that i bought before i knew we were going to have successful hatches. I think i'm going to move them to the big coop tonight, move the tractor to clean ground, and relocate the mamas and babies to the tractor.
Does it look like I'm on the right track here, or are there other factors I should address?
Does it look like I'm on the right track here, or are there other factors I should address?