Higher protein actually can temporarily increase egg production till it overloads the liver and kidneys.
All good points.I would not feel comfortable feeding layer diet to a rapidly growing bird. The calciumhosphorus ratio in layer food doesn't develop bones properly, so there can be both poor growth and long term skeletal issues, decreased elasticity of the tendons and ligaments, sometimes abnormal organ development due to microscopic soft tissue mineralization, plus the protein levels are less than ideal. It might not be a big deal for some people if their chicks grow a little slower, and it just takes a few more weeks to get to slaughter weight (although that's a lot of wasted food, which is expensive). But it's a huge deal if you're breeding purebreds, with the intention of raising long-lived and healthy breeding stock, or if you're raising birds for pets. Chick food is fine to feed to the broody, as she's not laying eggs while the chicks are really young. For flocks with both chicks, broodies, layers, and roosters all mixed together, an excellent solution is to feed either a chick diet or a general flockraiser diet, which are typically 18-20% protein and no excessive calcium, but also provide oyster shells for the laying hens. Typically the layers crave the oyster shells, and the chicks and rooster don't, so everyone gets what they need nutritionally.
All the bags of layer diet that I've ever seen, regardless of brand, all warn to not feed to birds under 18 weeks old.
Mine should be getting close too. I don't remember what day they both went broody but it was about 20 days ago. I took all the cross eggs away to put into the incubator and left all the purebred eggs with the broodies so I would know what chicks were what. I finally sold a rooster yesterday that had been in a breeder/broody apartment. Last night at dusk I put the broody ameraucana that was with the flock into that apartment after I cleaned it out.Hatching should commence in the next couple of days! So excited!
Ms Broody-butt
I keep young birds separate unless they are raised by setters.
Good points. I've done it both ways. Setters with the flock, setters in the penned area of the flocks coop and setters in their own space. The latter works best.
Chick grit and probiotics often help with pasty vent.
Thanks for the repost.
My broody hen is so close to hatching! I'm still not 100% certain about the day, but I think she's on day 20. I candled when she was off the nest yesterday. The eggs look fully developed, but I didn't see any internal pips yet. I'm not hearing any sounds from her nest. Are there other signs she might be close to hatching? I'm absolutely beside myself with excitement! My first broody hatch!
My broody hen is so close to hatching! I'm still not 100% certain about the day, but I think she's on day 20. I candled when she was off the nest yesterday. The eggs look fully developed, but I didn't see any internal pips yet. I'm not hearing any sounds from her nest. Are there other signs she might be close to hatching? I'm absolutely beside myself with excitement! My first broody hatch!
You mean I'm not the only one!!! My Dorkings have roosted in trees since the day they could fly, and much prefer it to their coop. Everyone else just puts themselves to bed at sunset, and the Dorkings fly into their tree. E V E R Y N I G H T I have to climb the ladder and pull birds out of a tree. Sometimes they're too high even with a 12 foot ladder and a few easy stepping branches above that, and I've resigned to not putting myself at risk by climbing even further into the tree to get them down. That's hard to do when my best hen, the foundation on my breeding flock, decides to roost 30 feet in the air, but luckily she only goes that high a few times a year. It's amazing to see them fly down from such a high roost. They make a lot of noise, which I assume is the chicken equivalent of yelling "Geranimo!!" and fly out about twice as far away as they are high up. It's still a bit of a hard landing with a bird this big (the hens are 6-7 lbs, and the roosters are 8-9 lbs). Once there was about 3-4 inches of snow on the ground, and they left a perfect indentation of both feet, light chest contact, and firm contact of both wings, to the point that you could identify every primary feather shaft. I wish they wouldn't do that, especially when they're laying, but that's just who they are. They'd be miserable if they didn't free range, and I can't keep them out of the tree without fully enclosing the bottom half in netting, which would be almost impossible with a tree this big.
I love this picJust when I thought the Bella situation couldn't get worse, the hens just had to prove me wrong. Daisy had decided to go broody and who's nest does she want? Bella's. Bella is just happily sitting infront of the pophole on nothing! I kicked daisy out and went to get Bella and she started attacking me so I grabbed her and shoved her back in the nest. This really isn't going to go well!
