Introducing day-old chicks
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[edit] Background
There are a number of ways in which flock size can be increased
- by hatching fertile eggs either by using a broody hen or in an incubator
- by purchasing point of lay pullets or immature cockerals
- by introdcing day old chicks to a broody hen
Introducing day old chicks to a broody hen has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side you are making use of a hen that is going to be disruptive and unproductive otherwise. Broody hens are prone to sitting for some time before their hormones switch back to normal and will then take a while to come back into lay. They have to be seperately housed from the rest of the flock otherwise they take over nest boxes and become disruptive.
[edit] Pre-requisites
There are a number of things that need to be in place before bringing in day-old chicks.
[edit] Broody hen
Without a broody hen this approach is impossible. Ideally she will have been placed in a quiet area away from other hens and in a protected space. She should have been sitting on crock eggs for at least two weeks - partly to demonstrate that she is really serious about being broody but also to give her the feeling of having sat for a while.
[edit] Adequate space
Not only does she need to be located in a house with her own nest but there needs to be a run attached to it that will allow the hen and chicks room enough to forage and explore. This outside area also needs to be protected from predators - especially crows, magpies and cats. The hen and chicks will need access to their own water and food suplies.
[edit] Acquiring day old chicks
Getting hold of day old chicks can be a challenge. In the UK the best place is the Domestic Fowl Trust at Honeybourne. You can collect the chicks or have them sent to you but the advantage of using a reputable supplier like the DFT is that the chicks will have been innoculated against the main fowl diseases and will have come from a disease-free flock. The chicks do not have to be exactly a day old - a broody hen will adopt chicks up to three or four days old but success is more certain with the youngest chicks. Equally, chicks younger than a day are likely to be more risky as they will be weaker and less able to take care of themselves. Try to get the same number of day-old chicks as the crock eggs the broody hen has been sitting on - this is not critical but just makes things easier.
[edit] Preparing for day old chicks
Assuming the chicks are introduced successfully there will need to be a ready supply of chick crumbs for them to feed off for the first six to eight weeks. Mother hen will also eat the crumbs. The house and run that mother hen and chicks are housed in needs to have been checked over for any little gaps that the chicks might squeeze into. Access to the house and nest needs to be easy for the chicks so no high doors or big steps to get up.
[edit] Introducing day old chicks
Day-old chicks are best introduced to the mother hen at dusk or early evening - as it is getting dark. The process of introduction is a two-step one.
- Place chicks in vacinity of broody hen - so the first step is to take the day-old chicks out to the nest box. They should all be together in a small box them selves. Place the chick box in the vicinity of the broody hen but out of her sight. The key thing here is that she has to be able to hear the chicks 'peeping' but not to see them. The 'peeping' will trigger a change in her mood - she will (hopefully) go from agressive to protective and this can often be confirmed by her adopting a sort of 'purr' as she starts to hear the chicks 'peeping'. In the natural situation she would have heard these little noises comming from the eggs she had been sitting on as the chicks pecked their way out and it is the mechanism that ensures that she does not turn on them and kill them but rather that she nurtures them. So in this situation of introducing the day-old chicks the mother hens needs to have been listening to the chicks 'peeping' for at least a couple of hours.
- Place chicks under broody hen - after the two hours have elapsed, go quietly back to the nest box and very carefully open up the chick box out of sight of the mother hen. Take a chick out by putting your hand over it and closing your fingers around it so that it is hidden inside your hand. Slide your hand under the mother hen and release the chick. With your now empty hand find one of the crock eggs and enclose it just like you did the chick and then withdraw your hand. Repeat this 'chick in - crock egg out' until all the chicks are under the hen and all the crock eggs are in the chick box.
Close up the broody hen's nest box and walk away with the chick box full of crock eggs.
[edit] Critical period
You are now faced with an agonising wait to see if, next morning, the broody hen will bring out the chicks and show them how to eat and drink and, more critically, whether they have all survived the transition. The mother hen will bring them out as soon as she realises that there are no more eggs to sit on - normally she would continue to sit untill all the eggs had hatched or until the noise of hungry chicks drove her to abandon what might well be infertile eggs in preference to nuturing the chicks. She will gradually move the chicks away from the nest in stages - going just a few feet at a time and then sitting down again. In this way she is keeping the chicks warm but also getting them used to walking about. She is also getting used, herself, to the feel of having the live chicks under her. Assuming all things go well, by mid-day of the following day you should have seen the chicks out with the mother hen; she should have taken them to the water and to the food. If this has not happened by 18 hours after you put the chicks under her then you will need to lift the mother hen to see what has happened.
