malmohuset
In the Brooder
- Jun 2, 2017
- 7
- 15
- 24
Hello everyone - we would love some advice.
Today, our new chicks were born - their mama has been sitting on 11 eggs for three weeks and this morning I noticed at least 3 little heads poking out from underneath her. I suspect there may be a couple more at least.
Right now, I'm not sure what to do - or even if we should do anything. Our setup is like this:
We have 10 hens and 1 rooster sharing a coop (large enough for 25 birds) with 3 nesting boxes. The coop sits inside a chicken run that is 24'x16'. I open the Run door every morning so they can free range on our 3-acre yard/woodland. They are all very happy hens and I supplement their ranging with about 40lbs of feed per month.
We also bought 6 baby chicks in March, for whom I built a new coop (big enough for about 15 birds) and placed it in the same run and then separated the run with chicken wire to keep them separate - I plan to integrate them in a couple of weeks. They were in the house in a brooder until the weather warmed up and they have been outside now for 3 weeks.
We also have another hen sitting on about 30 eggs and one sitting on 4 eggs and a wooden egg - so all our nesting boxes are full. The other hens seem to keep laying in the box with the hen on the most eggs and she scoots them under her or they roll away.
ANYWAY - my question is really about the new chicks - should I put some food (starter) in there for them? Surely they are too small to climb down the ramp on the coop (it is quite steep) - should I also put some water in there too?
any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated!!
Today, our new chicks were born - their mama has been sitting on 11 eggs for three weeks and this morning I noticed at least 3 little heads poking out from underneath her. I suspect there may be a couple more at least.
Right now, I'm not sure what to do - or even if we should do anything. Our setup is like this:
We have 10 hens and 1 rooster sharing a coop (large enough for 25 birds) with 3 nesting boxes. The coop sits inside a chicken run that is 24'x16'. I open the Run door every morning so they can free range on our 3-acre yard/woodland. They are all very happy hens and I supplement their ranging with about 40lbs of feed per month.
We also bought 6 baby chicks in March, for whom I built a new coop (big enough for about 15 birds) and placed it in the same run and then separated the run with chicken wire to keep them separate - I plan to integrate them in a couple of weeks. They were in the house in a brooder until the weather warmed up and they have been outside now for 3 weeks.
We also have another hen sitting on about 30 eggs and one sitting on 4 eggs and a wooden egg - so all our nesting boxes are full. The other hens seem to keep laying in the box with the hen on the most eggs and she scoots them under her or they roll away.
ANYWAY - my question is really about the new chicks - should I put some food (starter) in there for them? Surely they are too small to climb down the ramp on the coop (it is quite steep) - should I also put some water in there too?
any suggestions would be so greatly appreciated!!
