- May 22, 2014
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So a while ago, we mistimed putting a particular egg under a broody hen and she hatched late. Since the hen didn't want to take care of the chick, we decided to raise her in a brooder indoors. She's gotten very used to people since then and doesn't seem to be sure how to deal with other chickens, despite us letting her roam near and in the coop at feeding time and a few other times a day. (She prefers being indoors playing video games with me. Weird chick.)
She's now four weeks old. This wouldn't be a problem - I'm sure I'd figure something out - if I wasn't going to be leaving for a month after next week. My family likes having the chick around but doesn't really know how to care for it, and my mother seems particularly keen on moving her to the coop as soon as I leave. Especially since she's got silkied feathers, I'm worried she'll 1) be cold and 2) get a lot of bullying from the other chickens.
I've got an adult silkie rooster, an adult Wyandotte/Silkie cross hen and three Wyandotte/Silkie cross chicks (a week older than this one) in the main coop. They'll be moving to their own enclosure sometime next week and we have a spare coop sitting around from when the Silkie and Wyandotte were kids. The advice I've given my mom so far is to put the spare coop in the enclosure, put the little one in the spare coop during the day for a week (and take her back inside in the evenings in case it gets cold), then put her with the others during the night after they've gotten used to each other.
Does that sound sensible? Is there something else I should tell my mom to do? Is there something I could be doing with the chick right now to make things easier that I'm not already doing?
She's now four weeks old. This wouldn't be a problem - I'm sure I'd figure something out - if I wasn't going to be leaving for a month after next week. My family likes having the chick around but doesn't really know how to care for it, and my mother seems particularly keen on moving her to the coop as soon as I leave. Especially since she's got silkied feathers, I'm worried she'll 1) be cold and 2) get a lot of bullying from the other chickens.
I've got an adult silkie rooster, an adult Wyandotte/Silkie cross hen and three Wyandotte/Silkie cross chicks (a week older than this one) in the main coop. They'll be moving to their own enclosure sometime next week and we have a spare coop sitting around from when the Silkie and Wyandotte were kids. The advice I've given my mom so far is to put the spare coop in the enclosure, put the little one in the spare coop during the day for a week (and take her back inside in the evenings in case it gets cold), then put her with the others during the night after they've gotten used to each other.
Does that sound sensible? Is there something else I should tell my mom to do? Is there something I could be doing with the chick right now to make things easier that I'm not already doing?
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