new to chicks advice apprreciated

[AstraChick]

few years back my broody hatched eggs and there was one left, day later she rolled the egg out of the nest and when i candled it, it had died, mamma knows best. If she's going to look after them, its easier to leave them with the flock, mamma will sort out the other chooks but you will need to have food available for the chicks as Chickassan said thats a good idea. Might also be a good idea to make a separate nest/broody box inside the coop for them cause sleeping and raising chicks in the egg nesting box will get very poop messy through out the night and will be a big clean up for you in the morning.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A setting hen isn't laying eggs so her comb and wattles will likely pale and shrink. That is normally the case for any bird not in production.
The chick starter won't hurt the hy-line flock as long as they have oyster shell or other calcium source in a separate container.
At any rate, the chicks can't have layer feed.

 

[Couchie]

thanks everyone again. It seems to be a happy family and flock. When I came home from work today, the chicks were very active and running around inside the smaller coup I put them in. Then, after a bit I took the mum and chicks out on to the backyard run (some sand, some grass etc) and then let the bigger hy-lines in to observe what would happen. The hy-lines are generally a bit more crazy and demand food (black sunflower seeds is the choice at the moment the hy-lines tell me) and I was curious how they would be with the chicks. Some close observation of each other with chicks ducking under mum occasionally and then all normal as they all trotted around the yard for half an hour. Then mum wanted to go back into the smaller cage, called the chicks and they settled down for the night. Mum is choosing to nest on the dirt and hay and not the little platform thing I made for them but if they're happy so am I. Plus its 20 degree Celsius or (68 F) at 9pm now so not too cold.

I ended up putting the third unhatched egg under another broody hen I have but I am not hopeful it will hatch. I put a torch behind it in the dark and there didn't seem to be much going on inside. I'll give it another day and then remove it from broody hen and try to counsel her back to laying eggs again.

 

[Couchie]

Just for the record in case anyone reads this in the future. Yesterday 5 chickens including the two new chicks were drinking from the same little water container and watching them, they seemed to be getting along well. Today, I let the bigger hy-lines into the yard with the chicks and mum. They killed one chick. We caught them but it was too late. The little one died in my hands. The big ones were thrown back into the other pen and sprayed with the hose. My daughter was emotional and sad. The chick got put into a pretty box full of flowers and buried with a tombstone.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Aw, that's too bad! Glad you were on the spot to prevent further mayhem, though. to your daughter.

 

[Couchie]

thanks

 

[RoosterML]

@Couchie i have a similar bird to Hyline and they are not very friendly towards other birds or chicks. I also had them corner and kill one of my chicks awhile back. They basically skinned the back of his head forcing me to cull the chick. While they are excellent eggs producers once the ones I have are gone I will not be getting more of them. Leghorns are much more flock friendly and just as good a layer.

 

[BDutch]

I’m sorry for you're loss. Its not easy at all to let a broody hatch chicks in a coop/run with other chickens.

I learned a lot after reading a lot and semi-natural hatching 3 times.

One of my concerns was a sloping shelf up to the nest boxes. The small chicks knew how to get down. But not how to get up at first. I tried several things:

• made the slope very easy
• made a cardboard box on the ground
• put the small nestbox on the ground

the last is the best solution to adress this problem.

Want to know more?
First time I had trouble with a broody next to a nestbox with young chicks who started to peck hard on the head of curious chick. I learned from others keepers e.g to use a waterbowl with marbles to prevent drowning. And to give chick feed and water outside the nestbox area as soon as the mum goes out with the chicks.
A few weeks later I had real trouble with a rat coming in the run/coop through a hole. I lost 2 chicks.

Second time I had a little trouble with the space.

Last time was the best. I separated the 2 broodies who hatched together on one nest from the others. I could easily seperate a part of the run. I put a tiny coop/ big nestbox in it. At first on a bench. And after hatching I put this on the ground for a week until they learned how to climb the sloping shelf.

They grew up in this small coop with a run of 6m2. Which was great. The flock and the newborn could see each other through the hardware cloth. After 9 weeks I connected the two runs. There was some pecking but the chicks could get away easily and just learned their place in the pecking order.

Sorry I didn’t see your thread before. Oh and pictures alway help a lot if asking questions.

 

[Couchie]

Thank you BDutch for a lot of excellent information. And to RoosterML, we have had a lot of discussion whether to keep the hy-lines or not. They just seem to be eating and egg laying machines. We have had them since pullets but now they are imprisoned in a smaller run (8m2) while the mother and chick are two yards away and in a better place where we can keep an eye on them. They seem relaxed. I think I will will keep them there until the chick is a pullet and have a better chance of looking after itself.