when to move mama and chick back with flock?

[nayalusa]

We have an 8 day old chick that hatched under our broody hen(Only 1 egg of 5 developed). Mama and baby are now in a 4x4 cage that is all set up for them. We have 10 other hens all around the same age (1.5-2years) so this is a first for all of us. The entire flock has free range of about 1/2 acre of our property so they aren't all confined to a small space. 2 questions....

1. When can I open the cage door and let mama introduce the chick into the flock? The flock has experience with me introducing feed store chicks at about 4 weeks old but that's it. We have no rooster.
2. A friend offered me a couple of 1 week old Marans to "graft" to mama if possible. Would this be helpful to the existing chick and mama or just make her job harder introducing 3 chicks instead of 1?

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[GitaBooks]

I usually introduce the mother and chicks at 2-3 weeks, but I have a really large barn and a large pen for them. Just make sure the chick is strong enough to escape any pecking. I let out chicks too early once and they were all killed by another mother.

Week old chicks don't usually except a new mother, though they may learn to trust her and perch near her (a momma hen abandoned her chicks at around 3 weeks, so they could feed and care for themselves but they liked to stick near the other mother with chicks of the same age).

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

 

[mkm2]

One of our hens hatched out some baby chicks three weeks ago. We never seperated her while she was sitting, or after the chicks hatched. The first few days she kept them in the coop in a nest box with her, by 1 week old she had them out in the run. We've not had any issues with the other hens. She's a pretty protective mama and lets the other hens know if they are doing something she doesn't like around her babies. All the other hens seem use to them now.

 

[nayalusa]

Thank you I may wait a while then. Mama still lets baby eat with her and tuck under whenever so definitely sticking together-but also appears to want out of the cage when I open the door to refill or clean. She's probably ready to get moving a little more. Tough decision. I probably won't risk chick introduction since I don't need more right now. Would have only got them for the existing chick.