Can I put them out with about 100 chickens that free range and go in coop at night? I'll seperate the first hen that will tries to raise them on her own. Put them in alone with her. What I'm trying to say is. Will a hen try to raise these baby chicks? Or wil I have to? There's about 35 eggs going to be hatching in total but not on the same time.. This will happen over a 2 week period. I have a bunch of nesting boxes all over the coop.. I just thought I would ask. I don't really have time to be cleanning a little box out in a closet everyday until they get bigger.. I just thought it would be easier. Please give me feedback on what you would do.. Thanks Carrie

-- Carrie (onemaur@olg.com), December 09, 2001

Answers

A hen will not accept chicks unless she has been setting on eggs for atleast close to 21 day incubation period.They do not have a maternal instinct to "babies" that they do not think are their own,nor are they interested in chicks without going broody.You can't just put chicks out with adults..they will kill them

-- Michelle (davmic25@hotmail.com), December 09, 2001.

I have had hen accept chicks after sitting on eggs for only a few days but that's the problem, they had to have been setting. I would then put the chicks under them at night and they usually accept them as their own. I have put up to 13 under a medium size hen, and she has taken care of them, no problem. I don't know where you live but if I tried to put chicks out now, they would freeze.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 09, 2001.

Even if you live in the Deep South, it's too variable a time of year for temperatures to stay high enough for them to survive at all without being brooded with the usual heat lamps and dry absorbant litter changed frequently until they are fully feathered out, usually a month or a month and a half.

A hen won't "accept" them without having set on them as eggs.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 10, 2001.

Hi, I agree with all the answers. We have a Small Poultry FARM IN uPSTATE NY. This year one our broody hens hatched some chicks in the Coop. When they hatched we had to put them in the Incubator and keep them in the house for a few weeks. The Hen wouln't have anything to do with them. All Hens react differently. Don't put them with othe other Chickens. They'll kill them.

-- Gary and Pris (MTASHEACRES@AOL.COM), December 10, 2001.

Find a nice draft free space and but a heat lamp 24 to 30 inchs above them. Give them plenty of fresh water and a good starter feed.Don't put them with the other chickens until about half grown. Then they will be old enough to defend themselves. When raising chickens you will need a brooder house or place to raise babies. jim

-- Jim Raymond (jimr@terraworld.net), December 10, 2001.

I had chicks hatch in Oct. once, in Iowa. You need to keep them in until they are fully feathered so they can keep the heat in. If you do not have hens setting(they usually set in spring/summer) then they will kill the little ones. I have heard that you need to introduce them when they are three months old. They are big enough to blend in and old enough to defend themselves or run fast. You can put a seperate section in the coop by wiring off a corner or something until they are big enough. I wouldn't put them out until they are fully feathered though.

-- notnow (notnow@blabla.com), December 10, 2001.

In effect, you are the one who incubated these eggs, not a hen, so you will have to raise them. If you don't want to raise them then sell or give them away. Then next time plan ahead when you put eggs in to hatch.

-- Anne (Healthytouch101@wildmail.com), December 10, 2001.

I just hatched out a dozen chicks Halloween. (Yes, I know. Dumb time to hatch them--someone had just given me an incubator and I wanted to try it out.) After keeping them inside for a week, I set up a brooder in the chicken coop for them. Top half of a large dog crate had a hole cut for a clamp light to be screwed to. I put that in the corner of the coop surrounded by chicken wire so my dozen hens couldn't get at them or rest on top of the crate. Around Thanksgiving, the chicken wire came down, but I haven't had any problems yet with the hens. The chicks go out each day when the hens do but stick close to home while the hens wander the yard.

-- Gail (Quadrupets@aol.com), December 10, 2001.

Annie Miller,

I disagree with you. I have successfully place chicks under hens that were sitting on plastic eggs and they were accepted as their own. Again, they have to be broody and setting for at least three days. I've had hens answer the chicks in the box before I put them under the her. Again, this has to be done in the dark of night.

If the chicks are older, like from a shipment, I will lock them in a larger nestbox with food and water so everyone can eat while getting aquainted, because the hen will continue to set thinking more eggs need to hatch.

This only works if the chicks are up to three days old.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), December 10, 2001.

I have 2 hens who just now gave up trying to set - I did not want babies this time of yr, even with Mama to raise them.

I have built pens inside my house and kept them for 3 months. Dust was the biggest problem. I now have a room with only one-half a floor and I have raised them [with Mama Hen] under the house from inside it! Still dusty tho.

I once had eggs deserted by one hen hatch out in my make-shift incubator shortly after a part game hen hatched some in the garden shed. I put the 6 chicks under her at nite, she attacked all but one....so, I introduced one each nite until only the lone yellow one was left, who she would not have, so I kept it in a cage outside daytimes and inside at nite til she was about 3 months old, I'd open the pen daytimes, when she began roosting with the rest instead of returning to the pen, my job was done.

When I was a kid and the chickenhouse was one of the safer places, I'd sit on the roost and wonder what it felt like to be a chicken. Perhaps I picked up chickenhouse ways?

-- carol (kanogisdi@yahoo.com), December 11, 2001.