April 29, 2017, 11:41 AM
vandrvQuestion for the chicken experts
We have a small flock of chickens, four hens and a rooster. They are all Cukoo Marans. One of the hens has gotten extremely broody lately. We've been thinking about leaving a few eggs in the coop to see what happens. My question is, if some of the eggs hatch will the other birds kill the chicks if we don't separate them? Also if we don't separate them, how to do we feed them chick starter? I assume they will be too small for the layer pellets the rest of the birds eat. If possible I would certainly prefer not to separate them. Thanks for any ideas.
April 29, 2017, 12:07 PM
thundersonShort answer is not usually. The other birds won't care about them. The big thing to make sure of is that your coop/housing is small bird friendly. The little ones need to be able to get to water and food easily. Simple steps for a fully size hen may be too much for the little guys. Other than that you'll be good to go. You'll want to pick up a small bag of starter feed. Just put a little out for the chicks when you put the pellets out for the bigger chickens.
Occasionally you'll come across a chicken that's too aggressive with the little ones but that's not very often. Mom and rooster are pretty protective.
April 29, 2017, 12:45 PM
vandrvquote:
Originally posted by thunderson:
Short answer is not usually. The other birds won't care about them. The big thing to make sure of is that your coop/housing is small bird friendly. The little ones need to be able to get to water and food easily. Simple steps for a fully size hen may be too much for the little guys. Other than that you'll be good to go. You'll want to pick up a small bag of starter feed. Just put a little out for the chicks when you put the pellets out for the bigger chickens.
Occasionally you'll come across a chicken that's too aggressive with the little ones but that's not very often. Mom and rooster are pretty protective.
Thanks for this. We have raised chicks before so have small feeders and waterers. My main concern was that the other adult birds would be so aggressive that they killed the chicks. I guess we will let her sit on some eggs and see what happens.
April 29, 2017, 03:37 PM
mark60The sig forum of chicken keeping will have some help for you I'm sure.
http://www.backyardchickens.co...ealing-chick-starterApril 29, 2017, 03:44 PM
NeelThe store where I get my feed has porcelain eggs, about $1.00 apiece.
I put one into each nesting box,that when the hens get broody, after I've taken the eggs they're still happy thinking they have an egg to hatch.
April 30, 2017, 06:26 AM
vandrvquote:
We were actually thinking of letting her sit on a few eggs and see if they hatch. I'm just wondering if they do hatch will the other chickens leave them alone. If it winds up being a big deal, I will try some of the ideas to stop the broodiness. Collecting eggs has become an adventure.