Our Australorp broodie has succesfully hatched 3 chicks with 3-4 more to come soon. This is our first time ( hers also ). There are a couple things I am not sure about: Best chick starter? I had heard that calcium was not good for the chicks? Do they need a warmer while they are with their mom? Any ideas to help insure success would be welcome.
Welcome to BYC! Stick around, you'll learn a lot here! Nope, not much you need to do. The broody hen has it mostly covered, excuse the pun! You will not need to provide any extra heat. She's a heater unto herself, and very efficient. You will need to provide water so the chicks and broody can drink, and make sure the chicks can't drown in it. Provide them any chick crumbles, also known as chick starter. The broody will teach them to eat and drink, but watch to make sure. If you have a flock of particularly rambunctious individuals, you might consider segregating her and her brood for the first week or so for their safety.
Congratulations on the new babies! Like azygous said, the mama hen will take care of the heating and teach them to eat and drink. As long as you provide water and crumbles, she will handle the rest for the next several weeks. Good luck.
Any chick starter should successfully raise chicks...lots of opinions as to which brand is best, it just depends on what features you would like to have (i.e. Standard, organic, non-GMO, no soy, etc.). More important is the milling date--buy the freshest feed you can find to minimize nutrient loss. If your flock has had problems with coccidiosis in the past, you may want to consider a medicated feed.
Hi, Give the chicks a "Meatbird" feed. It is good from hatch to grownup. The hen can eat it too. Use a crumble. Also, put some Bovidr Labs Poultry-Nutri-Drench in their water for the 1st 2 weeks. Water should look like very weak tea. This will get them off to a strong start. http://www.nutridrench.com Make sure the chicks eat within 6 hours of hatch so they can use their yolk sac ( as nature intended) for muscle development and to jumpstart the G.I. tract. The yolk sac was never intended to be used for simple energy by the chick. The body has already reserved it for the the muscle and G.I. systems. Best, Karen ( I do like to use a medicated crumble)
