Sierra Mountains-Gold Country-Foothills

[AxisOfBeagles]

I was searching the BYC forum for likely threads that would be of value, and was delighted to find this Sierra Foothills thread - and then deflated to discover that it's been inactive for the last year or so.

Not to be dissuaded thought I'd shout out and see who might still be checking in on this one.

Particularly interested in chatting with any foothills folks with experience hatching and raising chicks 'the old fashioned way' - ie, letting a broody hen do the job.

 

[sherylreno]

Hi there! I'm still active here. I've raised 2 batches this year the old fashion way. My Black Lace Wyandotte has 4 chicks right now. It's way easier this way that's for sure.

How are you doing?

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Hi Reno, greetings from the other side of the mountain.

Did you do anything special in terms of the coop for your broody hen and her chicks? Heating or special boxes or such?

I'll be sure to wave next time I'm driving through Reno!

 

[sherylreno]

Hi there!

No, she stayed in the normal coop until the babies hatched and then I moved her to a dog crate. She had a batch earlier in the year and I kept her and the babies with the chickens but it didn't work out at all and we lost those babies but this time it worked much better and the little ones are running all over the place right now, they just turned 2 months old and Wednesday she decided they knew enough.

I had another chicken go broody when I removed her from the rest of the flock because she was in a molt and I had some chickens that were not letting her grow her feathers back, I put those on Craigslist and they're gone now, so she raised them away from the flock and brought them back into the flock when they were 6 weeks old and everything worked out just fine.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

Perfect - exactly what I was hoping to hear. I use the dog crates all the time for chickens. And what I'm hoping is that next season (if we get fortunate enough to find a broody hen in the new bunch) we can let one go broody in the hen house, then move her and the chicks into a safer environment in the dog crate. You're my new inspiration!

what varieties do you have - and which have been going broody and sticking with it? We've got RIR's and Ameracaunas - which are great birds but never been good broody birds for us before. So we also now have some Iowa Blues and Cuckoo Marans - the latter I've heard can often do a good job brooding and rearing. Fingers crossed. If not, I'll need to find myself an old english game hen or two, I guess.

 

[sherylreno]

My Ameracauna and Wyandotte were the 2 that went broody along with my Cuckoo Marans but I didn't give my Cuckoo Marans anything to hatch this year but I'm going to use her next year. I should have 3 batches next year if the timing is right. I have 2 dog crates to use. I raised chicks in the house 3 years ago until they feathered in and then put them outside and now I've learned to just let the hens do it since they make it so much easier with introduction and everything. The 4 babies running around are allowed to be with the adults if they want to and they do every now and then. I will not be raising chicks myself again.

 

[gryeyes]

In my flock, the most dedicated and successful broody hens have been Sister1 and 2, both "blue" Orps, Monica the bantam Cochin mix, Angel the bantam EE, and any of the four Penelopes, which are BCM/Silkie crosses. Oh, and Sparkle the house Silkie. Punkin the BO and Buffy my senior BO are pretty good, too....

 

[Flowers of Abba]

Oh, what's one more thread to follow? Lol

We re in the Tahoe basin. We have white leghorn, production red, Easter eggers, wellies, buff brahma, buff Orpington, olandsk dwarf, golden and brown quail and a few basque in the bator .

How's everyone doing with winter prep? Our new thing is dragging our daughters out back to help dig the trench to run power out to the bird yard !

 

[sherylreno]

We moved the coop and panted some of it but it needs more, we just ran out of time and cleaned it all out and freshened it up for the birds. I also bought BOSS for them once they start to molt and I get some corn later on once it starts to get really cold out because the corn will help with their heat. Everything is ready to go for the Winter.

 

[AxisOfBeagles]

"BOSS"???