Raising Baby Chick-Along

[Jessimom]

I have a determined laundry basket broody. I have 2 hens that escape the run, and come up to my back stoop and jump into a laundry basket we had there, to lay their eggs. One of them has gone broody and has made sure NOBODY bothers her. After ending up bloody after moving her to the coop at night a few times, we just started putting a plastic tote over the basket at night. I picked up some fertile eggs from gotro17, and will move her to a dog kennel I'm setting up in one of the coops. I'll see if she wants to actually brood some chicks.

 

[rjohns39]

I'll play along... I missed the hatchathon as my bater arrived too late. But I've been hatching pretty regular... Will send more pix tomorrow. Here's a shot of my brooder. It has two cells, is in my wood shop and can handle 100 birds per cell. I'm hatching Del's, ILs, RIWs, hollands, Turkeys and ducks. Not doing so well on ducks. All breeds are in my sig line.

8' x 8' 4' tall (big mistake), 1/2" welded wire on outside walls and 1/4" welded wire on lid. Got critters out there who like chickens, turkeys and ducks for dinner. I'll post pix of our out door shelters tomorrow. I just realized I don't have any...

 

[orrpeople]

Here are my babies! they are about two and a half weeks old (the little one might be a runt)View attachment 1041095

Aww - very sweet! How have you been "keeping" them? What breeds? Do you let them roam a little, or was this a photo op? I had a very social group of Black Copper Marans that wanted to be in the kitchen with me. If only they didn't poop every 20 minutes, it would have been fun!

 

[orrpeople]

I'll play along... I missed the hatchathon as my bater arrived too late. But I've been hatching pretty regular... Will send more pix tomorrow. Here's a shot of my brooder. It has two cells, is in my wood shop and can handle 100 birds per cell. I'm hatching Del's, ILs, RIWs, hollands, Turkeys and ducks. Not doing so well on ducks. All breeds are in my sig line.
View attachment 1041582

8' x 8' 4' tall (big mistake), 1/2" welded wire on outside walls and 1/4" welded wire on lid. Got critters out there who like chickens, turkeys and ducks for dinner. I'll post pix of our out door shelters tomorrow. I just realized I don't have any...

Looks great! I had to chuckle at you 4' tall, big mistake comment. I have long legs (I'm 5'10"), but I made my outdoor tractor just a pinch too tall, and with the hatch on top (because I didn't want to play munchkin and get in it from the side) I am always getting hung up on latches, little sharp wire thingys, and those darn little pieces of wood that keep the door from falling through. Just a couple inches shorter, and it would be a breeze!

 

[orrpeople]

Bad girls!!!! LOL! I have my chicks downstairs where my dog can't see or get to them...so random escapees would not be good...thus the wire covered brooders!

Our first chicks were the subjects of much dog interest. We had to do a ton (weeks and weeks) of dog training with them to get them to calm down around them. Whew! They probably gained 10 lbs each with all the treats we gave out every time they ignored the birds!! Now I can trust them with most birds, but if I have a nervous or flighty one,sometimes we have to re-educate!

 

[orrpeople]

Auction-aholic! I must be a broody-aholic. My girls have gone crazy. I barely have a laying hen that didn't go broody this year. Sssshhh!

My incubators were off for a few weeks. Only on for 4 days, after a broody lav orp decided to kill her first 3 hatchlings. So I took the remaining 4 eggs, drove an hour home with them in a butter bowl, between my thighs, and popped them in the incubator. One was already DIS, but the other 3 hatched! Now I have a broody OEGB raising them, because she only hatched one chick. The lav orps will be bigger than she is, in a few weeks!

But here's the latest, bestest one. Another broody OEGB. Its been so hot and humid here, she let this chick pip, zip, and hatch without even covering the egg. I stood above them and watched in amazement! She finally turned toward it, as it was about to push out. It had 2 prior siblings there to help. This was yesterday. I'm anxious to get home now, to see how many more have hatched. To be continued.....

What's your RH there in WV right now? Ours is in the 20% range. Everything is drying out, and we are supposed to be in the hundred degree range by this weekend! Even with the low humidity, Buffy's babies did just fine with hatching! The only drawback with having her raise those chicks was that they turned out like little wild things! And Buff lets us hold her, pet her, etc. But her babies were (and still are) very wild! Is there something you do with your broody babies to help with that?

 

[orrpeople]

Unfortunately, most dogs think smaller animals are there to be their playthings...and they don't play nice. So Tomo will never be allowed around them. He has his fenced yard and is walked on a leash. The chickens will be in the chicken fortress...so everyone will be safe!

Exactly! You've got to know your own dog and his/her temperament to make the call about keeping your chicks safe. We have friends whose cats have been their main menace with their birds, and their dog is fine! Always interesting!!
Quick cat/chick story:
Our cats have never been big on the chicks in the house (it's a good thing, too - we have too many to keep all covered up well right now!) But, for good measure, they routinely will kill a wild bird and set it on the doorstep as if to say, "See, we could take out your silly chickens, but we don't, see, we're good cats....now, give us that soft, delicious canned food we love!"

 

[orrpeople]

I have a determined laundry basket broody. I have 2 hens that escape the run, and come up to my back stoop and jump into a laundry basket we had there, to lay their eggs. One of them has gone broody and has made sure NOBODY bothers her. After ending up bloody after moving her to the coop at night a few times, we just started putting a plastic tote over the basket at night. I picked up some fertile eggs from gotro17, and will move her to a dog kennel I'm setting up in one of the coops. I'll see if she wants to actually brood some chicks.

Hahaha - between your silkie pile and your laundry broody, you should be writing a book!! Love it!

 

[CABINHOLLOWNC]

Exactly! You've got to know your own dog and his/her temperament to make the call about keeping your chicks safe. We have friends whose cats have been their main menace with their birds, and their dog is fine! Always interesting!!
Quick cat/chick story:
Our cats have never been big on the chicks in the house (it's a good thing, too - we have too many to keep all covered up well right now!) But, for good measure, they routinely will kill a wild bird and set it on the doorstep as if to say, "See, we could take out your silly chickens, but we don't, see, we're good cats....now, give us that soft, delicious canned food we love!"

I agree about knowing your dog...any animal for that matter. We had a horse that hated to have anything at her feet...the cats quickly learned which horse they were safe with!
Cats crack me up! We have two here on the farm at the moment. I had one that I couldn't break of stalking the bird feeders...until I moved the feeders into the dog yard...I know...I'm evil. But he never tried to stalk the bird feeder after that! If the cats are stupid enough to mess with the chickens when we put them in the chicken fortress...they will get a nasty surprise...and I doubt they will try a second time!

 

[SonoranChick]

Hi all! I have been out of the loop for a while but due to a career change, I thankfully have some more time to myself...first thing I decided to do of course is revamp the old coop (my poor hubby lol) and start fresh with ten baby girls from the hatchery. Well, they arrived a week ago and I am absolutely in love! I am so excited to share this journey with such a wonderful community of chicken-lovers. I am already attached to my gals of course and it's only been a week...there's my baby Delaware "Miss Blue", my rambunctious red star "stunts", who is already jumping onto the water fount, the food container, me, anything within reach! Lol and my Australorp "Artimus"...my RIR "Roseanne"...who am I kidding I just love em all Thanks for creating this post and sharing in the adventure!