Taller coop and baby chicks

[nicla]

We have 3 chickens and I decided to purchase 8 eggs to let our broody hen hatch some. I have no clue what I am doing. But I checked them by light on day 4 and they all look good with the exception of one which got cracked somehow so I threw it out. What I am worried about is the hen boxes are up high and to get into the hen house the chickens have to walk up a ladder under the hen house. will the ladder be too hard for the baby chicks? should I move them now (they are only 5 days of being sat on) to a new confined place with the mom? or will she protect them from falling down the whole and ladder?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum , glad you joined.

When I let a hen hatch with the flock I mark the eggs I want her to hatch and check under her daily after the others have laid to remove any new ones that show up. Sometimes the other hens lay with the broody. Yours are not fertilized so they won't develop but they can build up to such numbers that it causes a problem.

I don't know what your current coop looks like, how big it is or what the rest of your facilities look like but you might want to think about building a new larger coop, maybe a walk-in coop on the ground. Typically people that have three hens and an elevated coop with a pop door in the floor won't have a coop suited for the number of chickens you may wind up with even if the chicks were already grown and integrated. You may be in for a major expansion. Hopefully you have a plan to deal with cockerels.

Those small elevated coops present some challenges for a broody hen. I've seen a broody hen get chicks out of a 10' high hay loft, she said jump and they did, then bounced up and ran to her. While anything can possibly happen I'm not worried that they will hurt themselves by falling. And I don't worry about a nest 2 to 4 feet above the coop floor. But one time I let a hen hatch in a nest made from a cat litter bucket. The top was 7-1/2" x 11-1/2", too small. Baby chicks like to climb up on Mama's back while they are waiting for the later ones to hatch. She was sitting so close to the edge of the nest that the chicks missed the nest and fell the 4' to the coop floor. I picked chicks up four times, probably the same chick a few times, and out it back in the best with Mama. After that hatch I retired hat nest. I don't know what your nests look like but that is the only time I've ever had a problem with a chick falling out of a nest. Even falling four feet they did not get hurt.

I don't know what your coop looks like, how high or steep that ladder is or how the floor is framed. Is that a true ladder or really a ramp? Typically it is a ramp, not a ladder, but some people have a ladder.. It's possible a chick could fall through but it's probably not going to get hurt. By the time Mama brings them off the nest they can maneuver much better than people typically give them credit. The issue is that they won't know how to use the ladder/ramp. So they are stuck down there, not because of physical limitations but they just don't know what to do.

I wish you had come here a little earlier, I'd have recommended that you move the hen first to make sure she accepts the move before you gave her fertile eggs. But you are where you are, let's go from there. Many people move broody hens successfully but there is always a chance she will not accept the move and break from being broody. Your odds of being able to move her are pretty good but those eggs become really precious when they go under a broody. I let my hens hatch with the flock but if your set-up is like I think it is I recommend you move her.

You need an totally penned in area that is safe from predators. I don't think your coop is big enough or set up right so you can build a pen around her current nest that keeps her in and other hens out. Then let her hatch where she is and move the chicks and broody after they are hatched. Or build a pen inside the coop.

I think you should fix up a place big enough for a nest, food, water, and a small amount of space for a dust bath or to go poop. By instinct she should know to not poop in her nest but that does't carry over to the food and water. You need access because you may be cleaning in there regularly, let alone adding feed and water. The nest needs to be where it will not become an oven in the heat of the day.

I like the nest to be pretty dark, I think that helps calm them and get the to accept it. I go so far as to build the nest so I can lock a hen in the nest only, pretty much in total darkness. I move the hen and eggs at night when it is dark with as little light and commotion as I can manage. Then I leave her locked in the nest only until the end of the next day. That's not cruel, they usually spend practically all day on the nest. Then before dark I open the nest door. Often they don't even come out until the next morning.

I could be totally wrong on what your facilities look like. If you can give a description including size in feet or meters it could help. Photos could be valuable. I may revise my suggestions if I have a better handle on what you are dealing with. Once again, welcome. And good luck!

 

[chickens really]

I move mine all the time into a Brooder at ground level. I build the nest and put in eggs. Put Momma in with feed and water and enough room to poop..I leave her to settle back on eggs and it always works.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck. Good info by @Ridgerunner.

We’ve had 2 batches adopted by broody. She raised them in a separate broody box 6’x3’x2’high. Solid bottom and sides, mesh lids. There is a short ramp, through a dog door to the ground outside into a fenced off area of the run. The chicks took awhile to figure out how to get up the ramp and follow momma...oh, wait! They didn’t figure it out, and instead tried to follow momma but couldn’t get up when they tried from the side, so we ended up having to put pavers and blocks stacked like steps under and around the ramp so they could access that dog door and ramp from any angle. Keep in mind, momma hen was clucking instruction and encouragement but poor little chicks were peeping plaintively. We left it a few days (without the added blocks) to see if they would figure it out, but No...they needed access from all sides to follow momma.

If/when you move momma to a lower or different spot, it may help to keep it a bit darker and cozy where nest is. Since brooder Box is long and sits right below an east facing window, there was plenty of sun in the nest box. We covered 3’ of the mesh top with an old towel to darken the nest end and momma stayed calm and on the nest until little adopted chicks arrived. When we tried to move her another time to try to hatch eggs when she was broody, she could not settle down -too much direct light seemed to be part of the problem (not heat, it was late fall/early winter in an unheated area of the barn.)

 

[nicla]

Welcome to the forum , glad you joined.
Ok here are photos of my coop and he. Box. My husband built the hen box and I used an old dog run to make the coop
Runs there is food outside and inside of the house. The measurements are 4’ x 3.5’ inside hen house with the he. Boxes 1.5’ up off the floor. Roosting stick 1’ off floor.the coop run is 8’ L x 6’ W with another 4’ under hen house.
Hope all this helps.. her box is dark.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With three hens and seven viable eggs you don't know how many will hatch or what the sex will be but that has the potential to get really tight as the chicks grow. They may be OK space-wise while the chicks are still small and the hen is taking care of them but I'm more concerned about when the hen weans them and leaves them on their own to make their way with the rest of the flock. I'm not sure how they are going to share that coop at night either. I suspect she will want to sleep with them under the coop but time will tell.

With the height of the roost compared to the nests you've been lucky so far since the hens use the roost. If you try raising chicks in there I'd bet you will wind up with chickens sleeping in the nests.

I think the nest itself will be OK for them to hatch in, she is not sitting that close to an edge where the chicks will miss the nest of they fall off her back. That hole in the floor concerns me though, I think you are right to be concerned. That ramp is flat enough that the chicks can physically use it but they probably will not know how. I can easily see a chick winding up on the ground with the hen up above telling it to come to her. Instead of the chick going to the end of the ramp and walking up it will probably stand right under her and not know how to get up.

For hatch I'd suggest building a separate enclosure and try to move her for hatch, before they have a chance to fall through the floor.. You do not have room to build any partition in the coop itself. I'd be uncomfortable raising chicks in that, there just isn't any room. I wish you luck!