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Home / Should Baby Chicks Be Separated From Their Mom Immdiately

Should Baby Chicks Be Separated From Their Mom Immdiately

That first little 'peep peep' from under the wing of your favorite hen, a chick the hen hatched, is something yous'll never forget.

That sugariness little face is the culmination of the hours and days and weeks that you've put into raising your backyard flock.  In our example, my son strangely knew exactly which of our 14 girls would be the first broody hen – information technology would be Lucky Wattles, he said, and he would name the beginning baby 'Pip'.  And so it was.

The Benefit of Broody Mamas

I wasn't certain I wanted to raise chicks this yr.  Our hens are only slightly more than than a year quondam and considering they're pretty happy and healthy, we've likely got some other year or so before their egg production begins to drop off (or then all the books say).  So when suddenly it was May and my son asked if we were still going to raise a small batch of chicks this year, I cringed a little.  No, a lot.  Non just practice we non have room for a big brooder, but the idea of having to bargain with thermometers and washing water founts every day made me desire to run back to the metropolis.  Well, not actually, but you get the picture.

Now, conveniently, we had two hens go 'broody' right around that time.  I accept to admit that I didn't practice a lot of research – information technology was one of my rare 'dive right in' moments.  We stopped collecting eggs for a couple of days, crossed our fingers that some of them were fertilized courtesy of our big Buff Orpington rooster, and hoped for the best.

21 days after, we had our first chick.  A twenty-four hour period afterward, another 2 sweet little fluffballs.  All tolled, we concluded up with half dozen live chicks from xiv eggs between the two hens – 2 babies died when their eggs were broken before they were fix to hatch, and the residuum either didn't develop fully or weren't fertilized in the outset place.

And now, xi days post- the first hatch, everyone is doing neat and we're well on our way to revitalizing our flock with new egg layer for side by side year.  That is if they're all hens, of course.

Lessons Learned

To say this has been an gamble is an understatement. At that place are things I should have known earlier we started (like the challenges of having 2 mama hens with chicks in the same flock), and things I'm glad I didn't know (like the fact we'd find dead pre-hatchlings in the nest).  More often than not, it's been a groovy experience (my son loves it), only it'south too been a lot of work.

Hither are a few things to continue in mind if yous decide to requite your broody hens the opportunity to practice what hens are meant to do.  Information technology's not an exhaustive list, and I'm not an adept, but it'south a proficient identify to start!

  1. Separate the Hen(due south) – In the days leading upwardly to the eggs hatching, I asked experienced chicken raisers on our Modern Homesteading Facebook folio what their best advice was regarding separating the broody hens from the rest of the flock.  As is always the case, we got a lot of different opinions.  What I learned was this: there is no one-size fits all solution.  What will piece of work for you lot will depend on a number of things: the brood and size of your flock, the temperament of your birds, the size of your craven house, your nest box set-up, how much time you take to continue an heart on your new additions, and so many other fiddling details.  Simply in our case, I should have separated the hens when they started sitting on their egg clutches – not afterward the babies hatched.  What happened was that some of the other hens were hopping into the broody hens' nesting spots and depositing their eggs, which at first added more eggs to the clutch than I originally wanted (hence why we had two hens incubating the eggs – I couldn't tell which ones were the originals and which ones had been recently deposited), and necessitated me marking each of the 'sitting eggs' with an X.  Then when the babies started hatching, we lost a couple, I'm assuming due to other hens stepping around in the nest boxes in a mode nowhere most every bit advisedly as the broody mamas and cracking the egg shells before the chicks were ready to hatch.  I tried to keep them safe with chicken wire set up around those two nest boxes (with water and food at that place for the mamas), but it didn't work very well.  In the cease, afterwards the babies hatched, I ready upwardly ane of those folding domestic dog fences on the floor of the coop, configured into two compartments –  one for each new fiddling family.  Unfortunately, that didn't piece of work so well either, as the two hens were at each other through the wire fencing, knocking over their food and h2o in the procedure and stepping on the chicks.  The prepare now is i pen using the domestic dog fencing for ane family, and a big dog crate for the other, complete with food and water.  Everyone seems happier (myself included).
  2. Smaller Clutches are Better than Large – Our Lucky Wattles started out sitting on 14 eggs.  That'southward Style too much for a tiny niggling hen.  So instead of disposing of eggs, we moved six over to the other broody hen, Miss Snooty Pants (yes, we called her that for adept reason), and hoped for the best.  Side by side time, we'll make certain to only allow a certain number of eggs in each clutch (I'g thinking eight is a good number) – information technology increases the chances of successful incubation and I presume is much less stressful for the mama.
  3. Mama Hens Know What They're Doing – Compared to the constant diligence required when brooding chicks without a hen (or even more so, when incubating eggs in an incubator), letting hens look later on eggs and chicks is a breeze.  There'due south no need for thermometers or brooding lamps (unless it's really cold), or showing the chicks where the water is – mama hen does all that and more.  Ours have been out free-ranging with their mamas since about 24-hour interval 4 and it's fascinating to watch her testify them what's edible, what's not, where the water is, and keeping them warm.  Lesser line?  Mama definitely does know best.
  4. Other Hens Can Be Nasty – I was warned (thanks Facebook friends!) that part of the reason for separating the  mamas and babies from the rest of the flock is because other hens can be savage with chicks, even killing them.  Since I didn't really want that, I fabricated an effort to keep them all separate.  Merely other people say that they just let the mamas defend the babies right from solar day one.  I'm not quite prepare to risk a dead chick – not after all the work I've put into them – so I'll be waiting til the chicks are older, wiser, and bigger and tin can fend for themselves a chip.
  5. You Don't Necessarily Need Special Food – We're feeding non-medicated chick starter and gratuitous-ranging somewhat, but I've heard from a number of people that they have their chicks out free-ranging with the mama hen right from day 1 and don't employ chick starter or any grit.  You'll need to appraise how much food is bachelor for them while free-ranging to make up one's mind if there's 'enough' for their chop-chop growing bodies.  As for me, I'd rather exist safe than sorry and will continue to offer both to our six petty cuties. Note: chicks apparently can not consume layer mash, and then it's important to ensure they don't have access to it.  Formulations for laying hens incorporate far besides much in the way of minerals (calcium in particular) for chicks, and then if you lot're not free ranging your babies or making your ain feed, you'll need chick starter (preferably every bit 'natural' equally possible, ideally 'organic', and if not, so at least non-GMO – information technology does exist).  Here's a relatively updated list of organic chicken feeds in the The states and Canada:  Organic Chicken Feed Suppliers.

We've learned so much more than than this, but these v points stick out as important for the outset week or two.  Nosotros'll definitely keep you posted as things progress…

One of our Facebook friends said that there'due south zip cuter than a mama hen out with her babies, showing them the globe and clucking softly.  Now that I've experienced it get-go-hand and spent a lot of time out in the rain observing our new lilliputian 'families', I'd have to say I couldn't agree more than.

Accept you ever raised chicks with a hen doing nigh of the piece of work?  Is there anything I missed in this article that you retrieve would be important for new chicken raisers to know?  Are you lot new to this gig and have questions about hens raising chicks?  If so, share it in the comments below!  We'd love to hear your experiences!

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Victoria Gazeley

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Should Baby Chicks Be Separated From Their Mom Immdiately

Source: https://modernhomesteading.ca/blog/hens-raising-chicks-5-things-you-need-to-know-before-you-start