Old Fashioned Broody Hen Hatch A Long and Informational Thread

[ochochicas]

god I am so excited!! My two bantams should be hatching out a lone baby chick hopefully this weekend then its off to the feed store to get her some more chicks

but I had a question my grams only ever fed her chickens scratch but I wanted to feed the new chicks medicated chick feed....how do I do that without the chicks getting into the layers feed and the layers getting into the chick feed without locking up the hen(s) and the chicks. I still have my old brooder that I set up when I raised the birds I have now but both mama hens are use to free ranging if I locked them up in the brooder with the chicks until they where feathered do you think they would freak out?

Personally I think it would be better to separate the younger ones and the older ones. The hens will eat all the chick starter and not want to eat the layer pellets anymore. If the broody hen is not the dominant type, the older chickens could dominate the feeders and not allow the little ones to get any food. I keep mine separated for the first two weeks or so. When the chicks are a bit larger, I let them all out to free range together for an hour or two in the afternoon. The chicks learn now to integrate into the flock without having to compete for food with the older ones. Plus they have more space to get away from the meaner ones if they get chased. When they are 2 - 3 months old they will be big enough to defend themselves and go in with the flock.

 

[vpatt]

I kept my hen and her three chicks in the coop for two weeks. I was afraid they might fall out of our raised coop. I gave them all chick starter. On day 15 I left the coop open and mama took her babies out and took them all over the yard showing them how to free range. The other birds do not go near them. Everytime I mix their fermented feed I put a larger part of chick starter in it. I figured it wont hurt all of them to have extra protein in cold weather and during moulting. When the chicks are old enough I will begin lowering the starter or grower feed. I set out oyster shell for the hens. Everyone on this list is great and they all helped me know how to care for the new mama and babies.

 

[Blooie]

I was told that I could leave Scout out with the rest of the flock and just change them all to un-medicated starter/grower as long as the older girls had plenty of access to oyster shells and other forms of calcium. That's what I've done, and it's worked out beautifully for us. This is a good time of year to do that because for the most part laying has slowed down anyway. I don't have to worry about Scout getting calcium he doesn't need and the girls get plenty of greens, leftovers, oyster shells, scratch and starter/grower. I haven't noticed any laying issues with them and it's been almost 2 months. The girls that have decided to lay despite the shorter days are giving me good quality, hard shelled eggs. One other note - Scout has a small dish of chick grit. I figured there was no way to keep him away from everything the girls get, so rather than risk crop issues in addition to all of his other problems I'd just make sure that if he joined them in the scratch feeding frenzy he'd at least be able to digest what he's getting. Yours are a little young for that yet, I think, but something to keep in mind. Good luck with them!

Oh, and where in the heck do you still find chicks in a feed store? Inquiring minds........

 

[A6chickenhome]

I'm not giving up, don't worry about that. It's just amazing to learn about this whole process. I am constantly in awe of Gods creation. It's so wonderful to have this opportunity, so many don't know anything about their food except that it shows up on their plate.

It truly is wondrous! I feel so lucky to be able to farm and grow my own food and I really lucked out when I happened upon this website and found that "I am not the only chicken obsessed person out there"!LOL

 

[A6chickenhome]

god I am so excited!! My two bantams should be hatching out a lone baby chick hopefully this weekend then its off to the feed store to get her some more chicks but I had a question my grams only ever fed her chickens scratch but I wanted to feed the new chicks medicated chick feed....how do I do that without the chicks getting into the layers feed and the layers getting into the chick feed without locking up the hen(s) and the chicks. I still have my old brooder that I set up when I raised the birds I have now but both mama hens are use to free ranging if I locked them up in the brooder with the chicks until they where feathered do you think they would freak out? old brooder

I just hatched my first brood and, after a lot of deliberation and getting some feedback from the folks here, I decided to keep my broody and her chicks in the coop with the flock. I had them in a dog crate at first but now that they are roosting at night I wanted to get rid of the cage. So what I did was build a crate to put over the top of the chicks food and water. The crate has wide enough slats to allow the chicks to get in and out but not the adults. Hope that helps!

 

[winteree]

I just hatched my first brood and, after a lot of deliberation and getting some feedback from the folks here, I decided to keep my broody and her chicks in the coop with the flock. I had them in a dog crate at first but now that they are roosting at night I wanted to get rid of the cage. So what I did was build a crate to put over the top of the chicks food and water. The crate has wide enough slats to allow the chicks to get in and out but not the adults.

Hope that helps!

I like that idea I'll try it out to see what happens

 

[winteree]

I was told that I could leave Scout out with the rest of the flock and just change them all to un-medicated starter/grower as long as the older girls had plenty of access to oyster shells and other forms of calcium. That's what I've done, and it's worked out beautifully for us. This is a good time of year to do that because for the most part laying has slowed down anyway. I don't have to worry about Scout getting calcium he doesn't need and the girls get plenty of greens, leftovers, oyster shells, scratch and starter/grower. I haven't noticed any laying issues with them and it's been almost 2 months. The girls that have decided to lay despite the shorter days are giving me good quality, hard shelled eggs. One other note - Scout has a small dish of chick grit. I figured there was no way to keep him away from everything the girls get, so rather than risk crop issues in addition to all of his other problems I'd just make sure that if he joined them in the scratch feeding frenzy he'd at least be able to digest what he's getting. Yours are a little young for that yet, I think, but something to keep in mind. Good luck with them!

Oh, and where in the heck do you still find chicks in a feed store? Inquiring minds........

well my feed store always had chicks for sale but unless you came when the old farmer was there (because he ordered them) which is only roughly once a month if you are standing on one foot at 7 am and leaning in the correct direction to the north while whistling dixie in c minor, you wouldn't know what you where getting and no one that works there seems to know what breeds they are even though they are all sexed females...

I like that idea but I don't have the money to spend on more feed I already bought the medicated stuff

but next year that sounds like something

 

[winteree]

yay I just candled the eggs and I think we may have two eggs to hatch

one I think for sure is going to hatch when I candled the eggs the chick was all but dancing on the inside

but the other 6 are no good; clear as the day she started laying on them. it sucks cause the only reason I let 3 roosters run with my 9 hens is that I was hoping for at least 90% of the eggs to be fertile I guess those stupid roosters only went after the smaller easy hens its freezer camp for them as soon as I can afford a new ax

 

[Skink]

Super late response, sorry AnneInTheBurbs - My gal is still on the nest, yes! She's so stuck to it that I have to remove her from it by hand to make sure she eats, drinks and poops. Otherwise she won't get up at all! Luckily once she is removed, it just takes a few seconds for her to snap out of it and start hurrying through her self care. Pepper's always in a rush to get it over with and get back to her babies. She is very determined. Candling is going to be tomorrow, I'm hoping any at all are developing!

I've built a little tent for her by tossing a blanket over the chair for privacy. It isn't a very traditional setup, but she's right by me all day, and I can hear her stand up and talk to the eggs while she turns them from time to time. I miss spending time with her, but she's doing well at playing the mommy part so far and I'm very proud of her

 

[ChickenLady2014]

yay I just candled the eggs and I think we may have two eggs to hatch  one I think for sure is going to hatch when I candled the eggs the chick was all but dancing on the inside  but the other 6 are no good; clear as the day she started laying on them. it sucks cause the only reason I let 3 roosters run with my 9 hens is that I was hoping for at least 90% of the eggs to be fertile I guess those stupid roosters only went after the smaller easy hens its freezer camp for them as soon as I can afford a new ax

Sorry to hear about your clears, I myself have had a lot of those with this hatch. I set 36 of my own as a test hatch on my new flocks fertility. They are all from this Springs hatch & some from a hatchery. I have 2 roosters with 24 hens. Tonight 12/21/14 will be day 18 for 13/36 eggs I set. And I will possibly have another 6 go into lockdown in a couple of days. The other 17 were duds. 15 of them were clear and 2 were early quitters. But to finally get to my point, upon searching I've learned that sometimes having multiple roosters can promote less egg fertility because the roosters can be competing to get the same girl, but not be getting the job done.