- Dec 7, 2013
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Hello! First thread..
I have 4 hens that get along well in a smallish coop. We let them out to wander the yard whenever we are home. When one became VERY broody I took pity on her and bought 12 fertile eggs from a local farmer. There were 11 eggs from that day and one from the incubator from the day before. (I will not be keeping all of these hatched chickens.) My hen has been SO very faithful. One of the other hens is a fair weather momma. Sometimes she will come sit with my broody and has been squishing into the nesting box. But she wanders often and is not consistent. I have plans to move them from the coop when they are all hatched and am setting up a dog kennel for the babies and momma. I plan to move them mostly because I have medicated chick starter that the laying hens shouldn't be eating and the nesting boxes are up high and babies will fall down when mobile. Yesterday we discovered that the one egg that was slightly incubated was under the fair weathered momma in a 2nd nesting box and it was hatching! Yippee our first one! At first I thought this could be good because it will keep the main momma on the other eggs all the way through hatch. Now I suddenly realized..... yikes! I don't have anywhere to move both of these mommas with the chicks! I was doing good to come up with one dog kennel.
If I wait until they are all hatched and move main momma with all the babies is this cruel to the fair weathered momma that just happened to be on it when it hatched? It feels cruel.
I could also leave them all in the main coop and see how it goes but then what do I feed them all? Do I buy them all non medicated chick starter?
And what do I do about the raised nesting area? It is about my hip level and there is currently no wall at the edge. We could add a little wall, it is an area of about 4'x4'.
If I put them on the ground in the main coop will the mommas stay there? They are used to going up to roost at night. (up by the nesting boxes where they are now.) I could build some sort of comfortable nesting boxes for the ground level to encourage them.
Chick seems to have hatched out overnight! I see shell halves.... so far baby is tucked in tight under fair weather momma or else missing. I don't want to disturb them too much to see it. We are so excited!!!!
I would appreciate your experienced wisdom! Thank you!
Jules
I have 4 hens that get along well in a smallish coop. We let them out to wander the yard whenever we are home. When one became VERY broody I took pity on her and bought 12 fertile eggs from a local farmer. There were 11 eggs from that day and one from the incubator from the day before. (I will not be keeping all of these hatched chickens.) My hen has been SO very faithful. One of the other hens is a fair weather momma. Sometimes she will come sit with my broody and has been squishing into the nesting box. But she wanders often and is not consistent. I have plans to move them from the coop when they are all hatched and am setting up a dog kennel for the babies and momma. I plan to move them mostly because I have medicated chick starter that the laying hens shouldn't be eating and the nesting boxes are up high and babies will fall down when mobile. Yesterday we discovered that the one egg that was slightly incubated was under the fair weathered momma in a 2nd nesting box and it was hatching! Yippee our first one! At first I thought this could be good because it will keep the main momma on the other eggs all the way through hatch. Now I suddenly realized..... yikes! I don't have anywhere to move both of these mommas with the chicks! I was doing good to come up with one dog kennel.
If I wait until they are all hatched and move main momma with all the babies is this cruel to the fair weathered momma that just happened to be on it when it hatched? It feels cruel.
I could also leave them all in the main coop and see how it goes but then what do I feed them all? Do I buy them all non medicated chick starter?
And what do I do about the raised nesting area? It is about my hip level and there is currently no wall at the edge. We could add a little wall, it is an area of about 4'x4'.
If I put them on the ground in the main coop will the mommas stay there? They are used to going up to roost at night. (up by the nesting boxes where they are now.) I could build some sort of comfortable nesting boxes for the ground level to encourage them.
Chick seems to have hatched out overnight! I see shell halves.... so far baby is tucked in tight under fair weather momma or else missing. I don't want to disturb them too much to see it. We are so excited!!!!
I would appreciate your experienced wisdom! Thank you!
Jules
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