New Mom Worries

[sarahbeth003]

Hi all! I'm pretty sure I'll be welcoming some new chicks here soon (don't want to jinx it!) I was wondering if anyone has tips for the following things
A) they are in an incubator, so I need a broader. Any pictures of an easy homemade one? How long should I keep them there?
B) how and when do I introduce them to my old flock? 2 hens, 1 rooster born on Easter.
C) when should I stop turning the eggs in the incubator if I don't know how old they are?

Love Backyard Chickens!

 

[Ridgerunner]

What you need in a brooder is food, water, dry bedding, a warm spot, protection from the environment, a reasonable amount of space, and protection from predators. It doesn’t matter how you provide that or where it is. My brooder is permanently built into the coop. I’ve put chicks into that straight from the incubator with the outside temperature below freezing.

A wet brooder is a dangerous brooder as it can breed disease so keep it dry. I find it best to keep one area warm but let the rest cool off some so they can find their comfort zone. That’s much better than trying to keep a brooder one perfect temperature throughout. The link below is from the Learning Center at the top of this page. Lots of good information up there.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/homemade-chicken-brooder-designs-pictures

You could write a book on the different ways and ages to integrate chicks into the flock. A lot of it depends on your set-up and how much room you have, the more room the better. Since my chicks are raised with the flock and I have a lot of room I integrate them at 8 weeks. Some people do that a lot earlier. For some it is best to wait a lot longer. If you could tell us about your coop and run and how much space you have in them we might be able to give you something specific that applies more to your situation than to ours.

I‘m not sure I understand what you mean by “how old they are”. It does not matter when they were laid, what matters is when you started incubating them. The tradition and normal recommendation is to stop turning chicken eggs after 18 days of development, raise the humidity and go into lockdown mode. In reality chicken eggs don’t have to be turned after about 14 days of development. If you know when you started incubating them stop turning them sometime after 14 full days of development. If you don’t know when you put them in the incubator I can’t help you.