Separating mom/chick?

[honeybunny]

Okay, first off, I'd like to say hello, this is my first post, and I've found Backyard Chickens very reliable, since whenever I've been doing research Google's shown me BYC, so I guess I'll join and make my first post. I kind of feel like I'm in a room of strangers now, but, oh well.

First off, in late June, I took on the idea of allowing one of my Silver laced Wyandotte hens sit on two eggs. Two eggs sounds a bit unprofessional, I know, but I was planning on keeping them both. Anyways, on July 12/13th, both of them hatched successfully. I have a barred rock rooster, 4 wyandotte hens, 3 buff orpingtons, and two barred rock hens, all together making a flock of 10.

After doing lots of research, some of it, courtesy of BYC, I set up a small area in the coop using some dog exercise pen (http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTc6lkJxGf1ZXnUT4WssXSItvYJr2YNyFzVLbD_b0qG1Yoq-zm97g you know, stuff like this?) stuff we had lying around, and I used two more little pieces of that pen to use it as a top so other chickens couldn't fly in and I used a milk crate as an on-the-ground nestbox. I put boards on the sides so small newly hatched chicks couldn't get out and get pecked to death. But, very unfortunately, I'm pretty sure this happened with one chick, leaving me with only one. I feel bad for my little chick, not having any siblings, because I'm pretty sure having siblings would help her(I'm pretty sure she's a barred rock pullet, since she has darker feathers than a rooster would). I put in a small chick waterer and I used medicated start and grow purina chick feed when the chicks finally hatched in a little chick feeder.

All is well in the coop. When the flock is put away, I let the chick and hen out to free range while I'm outside. But the hen seems to be slightly losing interest in the chick. I'm wondering, when and how do I separate them(the separation has no need to be rushed, I wont be selling the chick or anything, and I'd like it to be as stress free and gradual as possible)? Some other people on different sites suggest that(not directly to me) I just "let the hen out with the flock and the hen will protect the chicks". Well, honestly I know that isn't true, in fact the chick once got a nasty neck wound and was nearly killed if she had not squeezed into a corner, and the mom wasn't able to do much.

Anyways, the chick wont be with it's mother until adulthood I'm assuming, so when does the parenting end? And what do I do when it does?

 

[Pyxis]

Mom will eventually just stop parenting the baby - you don't have to separate them or anything. I currently have a hen with one chick, just like you, and she's still taking care of the baby. The baby is now 6 weeks old, and will be seven weeks on Monday. Your chick is just a couple days older than mine. Some hens will leave their chicks as early as 5 weeks, and I've heard of mother never fully leaving their chicks till they had new ones. When she does leave the chick, as long as it's getting along okay with the rest of the flock, you should be able to leave her with them, or so I'm told. My baby has settled in well, and she is firmly at the bottom of the pecking order at this stage, although this may change as she gets bigger. Of course, my mom and baby have been out with the flock since day one so the pecking order is already squared away. The worst the chick gets is a little peck to say, "I'm dominant here" and that's it.

 

[mulia24]

In my opinion, if you have very spacious space to free range, you can put the mom with her baby outside with other, since they have no fight to do over thing. But, if you don't have super spacious space, keep the hen with her baby until about 2 months old. This is working for me, but well, perhaps different country have their own chicken's characteristic.

The best (again in my opinion) is to keep the mom and her baby separated from other flock until the baby about 2 months old which I assumed she can defend and escape her own self. good luck.

 

[honeybunny]

Okay. I figured it came relatively natural. I do have a nice amount of free range space. Once, the chick and mom's first time out, I just carried them far away from the chicken coop, and every thing worked out well. Another time, I suppose I took them two close, and, like robots, my hens sensed the chick and were like "KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!". The poor chick was chased about 10 feet and pecked at, until she raced into the coop and got out of reach, then the hens backed off. It was pretty bad, but survivable and not as bad as we thought. ^^

Also I'm pretty sure the mom is showing signs of letting the chick go. I usually have them in a little short chainlink pen where they can peck at the grass where they can't free range at the moment, but a couple times the mom has actually backed up, ran, and flew out of the pen making wild "bababawkacawkcawk!" noises and going back to the flock, leaving the chick sitting there wondering what just happened and then peeping loudly whenever she can't find her mom.

 

[Kelsey Cathy]

I have 9 Black Austrolorps, 9 RIR and 8 Barred Rocks. I also have 1 BA rooster (that 26th chick in the box of 25 I ordered..lol) I didn't want a rooster, I just wanted eggs. But since my eggs were fertile, and my hen was broody, I thought why not and let one of my broody BA hen set on 4 eggs. I kept her and the eggs in a secured brooder within the coup Once the eggs hatched I left them there until last week.
Mama hen was making noises and peeking up over the edge of the box like she wanted out so I opened the hatch door and let them out. The chicks are 7 weeks old now Initially, mama was attacked by a RIR and BR and she ran back into the brooder box where the chicks had stayed. When the chicks did come out they were scared by the other chickens so if any one approached they squawked and mama came running to their aid. The offender would leave. I stayed in the coup and this went on throughout the day but eased as the day progressed. That night when I went to close up the coup (I have a large free range area attached to the coup so I close it up at night to prevent critter attacks) I saw the chicks were scattered about in the coup. 2 were perched on the ramp @ the entrance of the hen house, 1 was lower down and 1 was running around chirping. I picked up one of the chicks and it squawked alarming the mother hen. I gathered them all up and returned them to the brooder box for the night. The next morning they were still pretty much in the safety of the brooder box until I opened the run then they all went out. There wasn't any 'attacking' of the chicks they mainly went after the mama hen. Occasionally there was a passing peck if one of the chicks got too close but that was all. Interestingly, the big rooster never showed much interest in the chicks, just reuniting with mama . That night mama stayed with the chicks in the brooder box but that was the last night she did that. Since then she has returned to the hen house @ night and the chicks huddle together in a corner of the brooder box on their own. During the day mama is always around the chicks as they do their own thing. I will let the mother do the weaning. From what I have read here this is pretty much how it goes and the best way.