Baby chicks time with mommy?

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Happy New Year everyone. On Dec 12th my game/araucana cross hen hatched 12 chicks. (Beleive it or not, all twelve were hers and she had been away from the rooster since she laid the first egg) But all twelve were fertile and all twelve chicks are alive and well. My question is...how long should I leave these babies in the cage with her. I think they need her for warmth right now. We are in Georgia and it is below freezing every night. She is in a pen with tarps all the way around and plenty of hay in the cage. I wanted to put a light in to keep all the chickens warmer but it is a 12X12 dog pen with a tin roof over the top and like I said tarps to keep the draft down. But my husband says he does not think the light bulb will keep it any warmer in there because it is not completely closed up. There are some small gaps in the corners. What say you guys???

Also can anybody tell me how when the eggs are twelve days apart how they all hatch out on the 21st day. Would not the 12th egg be 12 days less than 21 days old. I think my girl is a record book mommy candidate. Game cross hens make the best moms!!! Thanks. Carol

-- Carol Anderson (wande333@earthlink.net), December 31, 2001

Answers

If you are letting Mother Hen do all the work, I'd leave them with her until they are quite big, at least until they are getting really feathered out and Mother is not brooding them anymore. A chill can take baby chicks off very easily so why risk it. If the cage is small maybe you could move her to a larger one. Below freezing nights is too much to have the young birds on their own yet.

As for fertility, I've read hens are fertile for three weeks after breeding. Very efficient animals! :)

And the eggs can be different ages and hatch at the same time because even though Egg #1 is 12 days older, they are incubated the same number of days. If they aren't incubated, they just sit patiently waiting for heat so the embryo can grow. So Egg #1 sat for 12 days before Mother started to sit and may have had only a few cell divisions each day, if any, which may have made it hatch out a few hours earlier than some of the later eggs. Nature's way of making sure it all comes off at once. :)

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), December 31, 2001.


Hi Carol,

Chickens are really amazing in some ways. The reason your eggs all hatch out at the same time is that the first fertilized eggs just sort of hang in limbo until the last eggs are layed. Development doesn't start until the hen starts sitting on them - sometimes weeks later. As for the hen being away from the rooster while she was laying (and this is another really amazing hen thing) hens actually store sperm in their bodies sometimes for weeks after they have been with a rooster in the biblical sense - fertilizing each egg as it is formed. There's a survival of the species tactic for you!

Your hen will probably be able to take care of the chicks and keep them warm in the conditions you describe - a more sure but less natural method would be to brood them without the mom. If you could rig up a lamp closer to the floor they might benefit from the extra heat but then you have to worry about fire. Good luck to you -

Sara

-- Sara Perry (JPerry1218@aol.com), December 31, 2001.


I leave momma hen & chicks in a cage inside the coop. This way they're separated from my flock but everyone can see the new family & begin getting used to one another. When the chicks are 2 wks or older i let them out to mingle with the others, under my close supervision and for only an hr the first day out(or however long you can stay out with them). I increase their time out each day afterwards with me doing chores close by to hear if there's trouble. then you just use your judgement on when you can leave them unsupervised. Usually at this age the chicks can dart/run fast enough to escape any attacks my the others. I've tried letting the chicks out of the cage when they're under 2wks of age & it ends in disaster (chicks get killed when other hens gang up on momma so she can't protect her babies). when the chicks are under 2 wks, they're too young to know to run (or able to run fast enough). And other hens are unbelievable vicious towards young chicks. I would just leave her babies with her until she weans them, that way they can tuck themselves under her for a warm up during these cold months. As long as they stay dry & aren't in a draft of frigid air, they should be fine. YOu could also add extra hay/straw for her to nest down into to help keep warm. For peace of mind, you could add a light on the really cold nights. Hope this helps, and a happy new year to you, too!

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

Carol,

I had two hens set this past spring. I was curious how long the hens would look after the chicks. I kept them in a chicken tractor until somewhere between 2-4 weeks. After that I turned them out during the day. The hens weaned them somewhere between 6-7 weeks.

-- Mel Carroll in N.C. (frank.a.carroll@worldnet.att.net), January 01, 2002.


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