What to do next

[yokel]

I put a sitting hen in a rabbit hutch with some eggs & she hatched 4.

I gave them a water drinker and a feeder with chick crumb. Been checking & changing it 2-daily

Last year, 1st time, I messed up & the chicks didnt survive, I took them off their mum too early

This year all's good so far, theyre about a month old, very lively.

Mum getting a bit threadbare as all she has to eat is chick crumb.

Been letting them all out for half an hour a day closely supervised.

When can they look after themselves ok, so mum can be let out

When can they start being allowed to forage outside & start getting a bit of grit

When can I safely offer them grain, should it be crushed grain at first?

 

[nuthatched]

Chicken starter is good for your hen, so don't worry about that. They can wander around together no problem
don't offer grain, they are too little and it not great first your hen as she recovers from setting.

 

[yokel]

So just leave them be & keep up checking the crumb and water's accessible, clean out the poop & give them a supervised half hour out every other day for now, all together, then back in.. that'll be ok for now yeah?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chick Starter or Grower has all the nutrition your hen needs. She is not laying eggs so she does not need extra calcium. That is an excellent feed for her to eat. It sounds like she may be molting. I've had broody hens molt as they are raising their chicks. No problems with that. But you might want to check her (and the chicks) for mites or lice. Roost mites especially, those hide during the day and only come out at night.

So just leave them be & keep up checking the crumb and water's accessible, clean out the poop & give them a supervised half hour out every other day for now, all together, then back in.. that'll be ok for now yeah?

You can do it that way, many people do versions fairly close to that. I let my broody hens raise their chicks with the flock from Day 1. I like for the broody hen to handle integrating her chicks and being able to rejoin the flock when she weans her chicks. I don't know what your facilities look like or your flock make-up. I generally have a mature rooster, several mature hens, and a lot of juveniles of different age. And I have a lot of room. What works for me might not work for you.

 

[yokel]

I've 2 roosters, a white sussex and a rhode island red, and for hens, 3 brown lohmans and 2 red sex link.

Robert the rhode island rooster has the red sex link hens, Bigfoot the white sussex has the lohmans.

Bigfoot & the lohmans roost in a fair sized chicken shed which used to be a garden summerhouse. The rabbit hutch I'm using as a nursery is in there. One of the lohmans is the broody. Bigfoot and the other 2 lohmans come and go through a sort of dogflap arrangement.

Bigfoot is as tame as tame gets but Robert is pretty wild and doesn't like human contact or confinement. He lives pretty much permanently outside in about an acre.

Theres the occasional squabble between the roosters but never serious. Bigfoot runs at Robert now and then but Robert is more agile and runs faster. Bigfoot gives up easily. Other times theyre totally happy to share a pile of corn.

The acre theyre in, has allsorts of features such that it'd be impossible to restrict access to anything in particular to chicks let out unsupervised for long periods. Muckheap full of worms, allsorts of assorted bird seed scraps, etc

The chickens love it but how would the chicks get on with the chickens that didnt brood them, and the roosters.. particularly Bigfoot who can sometimes get a bit territorial and a bit protective of the hens he sees as 'his'.

I'm kinda itching to let them all together as a flock and come and go as they please but, don't want to rush it and end up losing them all like last year.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That's a lot of good information, thanks. It's especially encouraging that you have an acre or so to play with.

1st time, I messed up & the chicks didnt survive, I took them off their mum too early

What happened? Why didn't they survive? Why did you take them away from the broody? What were the circumstances?

I leave my chicks with the broody hen until she weans them. I've had a couple of broody hens wean them at 3 weeks old (in warmer weather) and totally leave them on their own to make their way with the flock. They did fine but Mama had spent three weeks teaching the chicks to stay away from the other adults and teaching the other adults to leave her babies alone. I've had broody hens wait over two months to wean their chicks. There is no set age when she will wean them. With my set-up that has never been a problem. Sometimes people can have problems with this, especially if room is tight. The 1 acre sounds good but the coop may be more of an issue.

Been letting them all out for half an hour a day closely supervised.

I assume all means the broody with her chicks while the others are out ranging. Good.

When can they look after themselves ok, so mum can be let out

I assume you talking about removing the hen and leaving them locked in there? I spent a year in London back in the 1970's so i have a rough idea of what your weather is probably like. At 1 month old your chicks do not need the hen for warmth. They are perfectly capable of eating, drinking, and such on their own. If you are going to leave them locked in there until you decide to integrate them you can remove the broody at any time.

When can they start being allowed to forage outside & start getting a bit of grit

I let my broody hens raise the chicks and decide this. One of the first thing my broody hens do is take them to a spot where they can peck at the ground and get grit, as well as bits of food. This may be at 1 or 2 days old. You can probably buy chick grit at the feed store, they might have it, and give it to them now. You can put dirt in with them, they will get grit from that. Some people cut a small square of turf (grass, roots, and dirt and put it in the brooder. If they are allowed to forage outside they can get their own grit.

When can I safely offer them grain, should it be crushed grain at first?

What grain are you talking about? At a month old they should be able swallow any grain, none should be too big for them. As long as they have grit in their gizzard they can crush and grind it themselves at an extremely young age. That's what the gizzard and grit is for. There is nothing wrong with crushing or cracking it for them if you wish. A lot of people buy cracked maize (what we call corn in the US). If the grain is ground into flour of meal they do not need grit.