Need your help!!

[Elliamay]

Should I leave the hen and her baby chicks in same pen with other chickens,when the eggs hatch?

 

[Martha Jensen]

I found a chick today when I went out for eggs. Oh, my! I have one chicken who is broody, but I mark the eggs she sits on; everyone lays in that box. Grab the chick, get it isolated with food and water and run to Concord Feed. Told the chick is better off with Mom. Get the food I need, a single nesting box that can go on the ground of the coop, run back. Herd 7 chickens to one half of the coop, add hay in the box, move two eggs and one chicken. Dash inside and move chick to Mom.

Thank goodness I got a mirror image coop/run with a screen door!


I am actually hoping one of the marked eggs hatches. If not I may end up with one chicken wintering in the house alone . . .

 

[donrae]

Leave chicks with momma and momma with the flock whenever possible. It's the best way for the chicks to grow up. Momma will keep anyone from messing with her babies. The rooster should help protect them also, mine have. Make sure your feeder and waterer are low enough for the babies to reach. Feed the whole flock chick starter or grower, no layer feed. Set up someplace for the littles to get out of the big girls' way when the older ladies get tired of the chicks.

 

[Martha Jensen]

Uh oh. I moved mine to the other side. The one brooding moves out for a bit in the morning, lets everyone who wants to lay in that box and then moves back in. No idea who the bio mom is, but Rocky is dad. I have had missing eggs (ones I had marked she was sitting on) with no trace and am worried about snakes. This way I can close the two in at night since she doesn't seem to care. I have been taking her (brooding hen) out twice a day to eat or she would just stay in the box.

Can I wait a couple weeks and then move them back to the flock? Obviously, I was not ready for this . . .

 

[Elliamay]

Thanks for your help,I'm just waiting now for them to hatch.