New Chick Care with Adult Flock

[FloridaChick88]

Hi everyone,
My bantam hen just hatched her only egg. She started with 8 but after several duds and accidental breakage by her flock mates, she was left with this one lonely egg that hatched just a couple of hours ago.

The problem is I have no where I can keep her and the baby separate from the main flock this time because my "spare" broody pen is already occupied by chicks that aren't old enough to be integrated yet. I usually feed my babies medicated feed for at least the first 3 months so I'm wondering how to go about doing this for the new baby while also making sure all of my other "big girls" are getting the right nutrition. They have all begun to molt so I have them on a higher protein feed than usual. Will it hurt the baby to eat the adult feed? Thanks!

 

[azygous]

First of all, it does no harm to feed an adult all flock feed to baby chicks, and it does no harm to feed baby chick crumbles to adult chickens. They are almost exactly the same ingredients in both. What you do not want to do is feed layer feed to chicks or non-layer adults.

What I would do is rig up a temporary cage or pen adjacent to the other broodies and chicks. Not knowing your layout or how much room you have, I can only recommend what would be best for the broody and her single chick, and that is to remain in view of the flock so she doesn't lose rank. She will be returning to the flock to integrate her chick, and it's crucial she have rank in order to successfully protect her chick.

If your other broodies are out of sight of the main flock, this could present a problem for them just as well when they return to the flock to integrate their chicks.