Our First Broody-Hatched Clutch!

[Cnjecker]

Hello all!

Our girly just hatched 6/7 eggs (rejected the last one) and they’re up and walking about the coop. The other hens don’t seem to mind them and neither does the rooster, thank god!! My question is, our coop is raised off the ground by probably 2 feet or so with a ramp with small ”steps” every 3 inches or so along it that leads into our run. Will the chicks be able to get down it?

If not, how exactly do I remedy this?

Pic of our new chickies!

 

[Prince and Pavo]

Hello!

View attachment 3560329
Hello all!

Our girly just hatched 6/7 eggs (rejected the last one) and they’re up and walking about the coop. The other hens don’t seem to mind them and neither does the rooster, thank god!! My question is, our coop is raised off the ground by probably 2 feet or so with a ramp with small ”steps” every 3 inches or so along it that leads into our run. Will the chicks be able to get down it?

If not, how exactly do I remedy this?

Pic of our new chickies!

They are adorable!

I think the chicks should be okay because they will follow their mom around, and a ramp will allow them to go up and down easily, as long as it’s not too steep. I don’t think that will be a problem though, if your hens can go up and down it too.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

I think they should be fine, my coop is 2 feet off the ground and I put out cinder blocks for steps, my husband is gonna build a ramp soon but my hen took her chick's out and they couldn't jump back up the step with her so I sat and watched her and she would come back out after 5 minutes and started sleeping on the floor under the coop behind the steps. She still keeps trying to call the baby up into the coop and today they're a week old and can get to the top of the steps now but can't quite make it up the last jump up so she's back on the floor tonight. I tried putting a box out for her turned on it's side but she wasn't interested in it and chose her own spot. I don't close my coop in the summer and instead made sure the run was secure so they can sleep outside cause we do get 90° night's through summer so I'm not worried about them staying out at night. You can try putting the chicks up with her when she goes in until they figure it out but I just prefer to let the hens do their thing with as little intervention from me as possible.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The other hens don’t seem to mind them and neither does the rooster

That sounds pretty normal. My roosters are more likely to help Mama take care of the chicks than hurt them. While you can get a hen that is curious about the chicks my broodies do a good job of protecting their babies. Some people do run into problems like that but those kinds of problems are more of an exception than the norm, at least for me.

My question is, our coop is raised off the ground by probably 2 feet or so with a ramp with small ”steps” every 3 inches or so along it that leads into our run. Will the chicks be able to get down it?

Getting down is not the issue. My hens typically hatch in nests 4' above the coop floor. When it is time for them to go to the coop floor the hen hops down and calls them. They jump down to join her. I've never had one injured doing that.

The problem is that they cannot get back up. With my coop that is not a problem, the hen settles on the coop floor to keep them warm. She does not need a nest to do that. With your coop being elevated you can have issues. What normally happens is that the hen hops up to the top of the ramp and calls the chicks. They can't fly or hop up and do not know to go to the end of the ramp to walk up. They will catch on in a few days but you may want to be out there at bed time in case they need help getting to a safe place. Or, if you consider your run predator safe you might let the hen take care of them on the run floor.

My coop is ground level with the pop door about 12" above the coop floor and bit more above ground level outside. I build steps out of pavers so the chicks can hop up to get where they want to go.