new to raising my own hatched peeps

[Arkansas81]

ok i don't have any new peeps yet but will soon. i am trying to figure out how to get ready for them....

what do i do with the moms? seperate before or after-how long to keep them seperate?

nesting boxes? how many, whats the best materials?

i have roughly 10 or so hens-i think? i know for sure i have one rooster, two or three others not sure....

i have 5 easter eggers and 5 golden polish but they wnt be laying till oct or so?

the bigger ones hopefully will start to lay around aug?

thanks for any advice...

oh the bigger ones are around 4mnths old, the little ones around 3mnths. i tried to intergrate them but they were to aggressive with the smaller ones....will i ever be able to have one big happy flock??

 

[Judy]

If chicks are being raised by mama hens, I do not separate them at all. If you keep them together, they don't hae to be integrated later.

Often a vaulted-skull breed like Polish do not mix well with regular large fowl like EE's as pothers tend to pick the feathers of the topknots. Other than that, chickens of roughly the same size should be able to sort out their pecking order in time. I would just let them work it out unless blood is drawn -- or topknots are pulled out.

3 nest boxes are ample, 2 probably enough. They can be made of most anything. Plastic bins or 5 gallon buckets work fine, especially if you want ease of cleaning. I have some open in the front and a couple open on top. Right now they are laying half the eggs on top of a pile of hay, and half in the nest boxes. Also, being able to move one easily will come in very handy if you ever choose to let a broody hatch eggs and raise chicks. If you don't care about looks, see what you can recycle -- old dresser drawers, etc., whatever is lying around. Even cardboard boxes will work -- although of course they don't last too long.