well see i hatch a bunch last month and they had die some how i think it might have been the rooster cause i waken up the in the morning to find a dead chicks lying there .so this time i was think about take the baby chicks off the hen a putting it in a little wire chicken pen so that the rooster cant get to them but are they aloud to be taken off them and will they be able to eat by them selfs need help
Take the hen with them if you separate them from the rest of the flock. that way she can teach them how to be chickens. Also, you cannot feed them the same food as the laying chickens. the calcium in it will mess up their kidneys. Get them chick starter from the feed store, and that should do. As long as the hen is there to keep them warm and they are all in their own pen this should work out just fine. Good luck!
It is perfectly ok to take the chicks from the mom if you have to, it won't hurt them or her. Lots of people raise their chicks without a hen at all. But, it is easier and more natural for them if you can have the hen do it, so I'd agree with moving her and them both to their own pen. Chick eating can be a problem; when I had chickens growing up they would eat every chick they could get ahold of! We built a brooder pen inside the coop, and the hens would break it apart to eat the chicks inside. If you don't put mama in with them, they should have a heat lamp to keep them warm. Also, give them chick food and water; they will begin eating within a day or so of being hatched. They can go up to three days without food because they absorb the egg yolk into their bodies, but if given food, they will usually eat within the first day or two. Also, if you give them water in just an open dish, make it shallow and put rocks or marbles in it so that they can drink but cannot accidentally drown in it; chicks drown easily.
