I'm not new to chickens, but am new again after a couple of years. I have two bantam hens, one of which went broody in mid August. I found her sitting on the nest about the 17th. Was able to check and see that she had two little bantam eggs under her. One of my bigger hens still insisted on laying in the nest, and after few days, I found a total of 8 eggs. Two bantam, 6 regular. I have never had hens go broody, but thought it would be fun to see what happened.
I counted 20 days on this last Thursday, and no chicks. This hen is stuck to her nest, and my other bantam hen had decided to 'co-parent' the eggs after I shooed her off the nest where all the other eggs get laid.
Well, this morning I asked the girls how much longer they were going to set on those eggs. Went out to get eggs this afternoon, and found two baby chicks! One bantam, and one regular. After the initial shock that this actually worked wore off, I started to think, 'Now what???????????' I put a small 2x4 over the door of the coop, so the babies wouldn't fall out, but 'moms' can get out still to go into the run. The coop is about 2-3 feet off the ground with a ramp. Then we closed up the opening to the bantam run with a piece of chicken wire so the big girls and the rooster can't get in.
I feed flock raiser, but don't know what the chicks need. I'm assuming they won't need to eat for at least 24 hours, correct? I did wet a bit of flock raiser in a shallow lid and put it close to the nest in case the chicks want some before morning. I also put a chick waterer with marbles in it on a thin piece of wood at floor level for the babies. The bigger chick looks super healthy, I think the bantam chick had just dried when I found them, after a couple of hours it's eyes are open, and it's moving around much better.
Do I need to feed these babies chick food, do they need medicated? I'm guessing that mom will show them where to find food, etc, but just have no idea where to go from here. There are more eggs to go, but not sure yet if they will hatch or not. Also, how many more days do I wait to see? Today is 22 days by my count. So excited! But clueless.........
I counted 20 days on this last Thursday, and no chicks. This hen is stuck to her nest, and my other bantam hen had decided to 'co-parent' the eggs after I shooed her off the nest where all the other eggs get laid.
Well, this morning I asked the girls how much longer they were going to set on those eggs. Went out to get eggs this afternoon, and found two baby chicks! One bantam, and one regular. After the initial shock that this actually worked wore off, I started to think, 'Now what???????????' I put a small 2x4 over the door of the coop, so the babies wouldn't fall out, but 'moms' can get out still to go into the run. The coop is about 2-3 feet off the ground with a ramp. Then we closed up the opening to the bantam run with a piece of chicken wire so the big girls and the rooster can't get in.
I feed flock raiser, but don't know what the chicks need. I'm assuming they won't need to eat for at least 24 hours, correct? I did wet a bit of flock raiser in a shallow lid and put it close to the nest in case the chicks want some before morning. I also put a chick waterer with marbles in it on a thin piece of wood at floor level for the babies. The bigger chick looks super healthy, I think the bantam chick had just dried when I found them, after a couple of hours it's eyes are open, and it's moving around much better.
Do I need to feed these babies chick food, do they need medicated? I'm guessing that mom will show them where to find food, etc, but just have no idea where to go from here. There are more eggs to go, but not sure yet if they will hatch or not. Also, how many more days do I wait to see? Today is 22 days by my count. So excited! But clueless.........
