[ayrt1010]

Hi, :wave:My daughter wanted chickens for her 7th birthday, this is partly my fault as I had a dexter cow and calf for my birthday last year and now we have 5! We decided she could have 4 chickens, so along came Susie (Buff Sussex), Sarah (Light Sussex), Dotty (Maran) and Claire (Chocolate Orpington). This has since ben followed by Lucy (X battery hen) which I felt sorry for and Tallulah (Barnevelder). Last week we agreed to have a White Orpington in a couple of weeks when she is old enough. All was going well (ish) until Claire was acting strangely so on inspection we saw that she had pulled all her feathers out on her breast. Well that was it, "We need to get her to the vets",I said. My husband (a Farmer) said,"I'm not taking a chicken to the vet, it will be ok". Google is a great thing, I realised she was broody and an impulse idea, "We shall have to get her eggs to sit on!" I said. So that's what we did and now she has been sitting for a week and I realise that I haven't got a clue what she should be eating or how we should prepare for our (hopefully) new arrivals, any help would be gratefully received, Thank you.

[jaykay]

   It's very exciting having your own chicks 


She can eat what she's always been eating.
She needs her own coop and run for when the chicks hatch as the others may attack them.


If you haven't done this already, section off where she is sitting (sometimes the others pick on broody hens) but wait til the chicks hatch before you move her as the move may stop her sitting. When she gets off her nest one day, dust her and where she's sitting with louse powder, as sitting hens can get quite 'crawly'.


Once they hatch the whole family need chick crumbs and I personally wait til they're quite big, 8-10 weeks, before re-introducing them to the rest of the flock.

[suziequeue]

Agree with what Jaykay says. We put our hen into a separate broody coop when she was sitting and then into her own run once the chicks hatched.


When our hen got broody we carried on feeding her layers pellets and corn but - thinking about it - I guess since a broody hen isn't laying then perhaps she should be eating something other than layers pellets while she's sitting.


When the chicks hatched then she ate chick crumbs with them and then back to layers pellets once she lost interest in the chicks and wanted to get back to her buddies.


At six weeks the chicks are getting bigger every day but they still have their own run. Then, when the cockerels get bigger I guess they'll have to be sectioned off into yet another separate run.......


We've got five hens and six chicks and suddenly four 5x6m runs don't seem enough....

[Mammyshaz]

Hello    welcome to the forum. Look forward to hearing how things go with the chicks 

[Lesley Silvester]

    Hi and welcome from soggy Shropshire.

[tizaala]

We have three chicks hatched by a broody two weeks ago , we have a wire run for them that the others can't get into (1" mesh ) mum shows them how to scratch about and they chase flies and grubs, our goats always leave crumbs in the bottom of their feed buckets at milking time so we throw this into them instead of chick crumbs , they love it and are thriving, Mum defends them agresively against anything that strays too close . allow 21- 25 days for them to hatch. make sure she has her own food and water within easy reach.

[ayrt1010]

Thank you for all your advice, it is welcomed!! We've only just came in , we are extending the chicken run a little. The dog decided to help and then we lost her, Claire the broody hen was making a lot of noise and I realised the dog was in her coop. The door is no bigger than an A4 piece of paper, luckily no damage was done, my hubby said she was just investigating. Bell(the dog) can do no wrong!!

[Beewyched]

Ok, now this may sound a bit thick    - but, all the chickens have female sounding names, you do have a cockerel?
 

[ayrt1010]

No we don't!!! The place where we got the hens from sold us some fertilised eggs. We only let our daughter have 4 hens. We got her a small coop and run. Now we have 6 hens and potentially 5 on the way and she is also having a White Orpington shortly so my husband will have to make a bigger coop just incase we have any more feathery friends!

[jaykay]

 
I started out with 4 hens too. Now I have 30, not to mention 20 ducks, 3 geese and all the sheep and goats - so watch out, it's addictive 

[Bangbang]

I started out with 4 hens too. Now I have 30, not to mention 20 ducks, 3 geese and all the sheep and goats - so watch out, it's addictive 

How true jaykay,
Are there any  help groups we can contact regarding this addiction? I think I need to book OH in

[jaykay]

No, we're hopeless cases, it can't be cured but only be managed by adding plenty of animals to the environment and having good friends, as on here, who 'get' it 

[Possum]

Someone else with a hen called Tallulah! I thought we were the only people daft enough to do that (Although it was OH's idea because he thought she looked exotic)


Welcome to the TAS site and good luck with the chicks

[ayrt1010]

My daughter has named all of the chickens!!

[ayrt1010]

Just to let ou know 2 eggs have hatched so far, but I thought all chicks were yellow!!! These are blackish/grey but very cute!