Raising Chicks

Those Fluffy Little Bundles of Cheeping Joy

You don’t have to be a kid to thoroughly enjoy this process of hatching out the eggs, and seeing the little fluff balls running around cheeping continually.

Make sure that the nest where the chicks hatch is low enough for them to get down to the floor safely as they can't fly and will just tumble down after getting mama hen worked up into a frenzy.

The phrase ‘as protective as a mother hen’ comes from this extreme and fierce motherly instinct. Sometimes you have to protect a maternal hen from her own strong instincts, as she’ll fight to the death to protect her babies, leaving them motherless.

Chicks are hatched by chipping away at the inside of their eggs, making a little lid from the big end of the egg.

The chicks can live without food or water for up to two days.

This makes it possible to ship live day old chicks in the mail. Once they are warm and dry, the mama hen will emerge from her nest, clucking constantly to keep the chicks by her to lead them to water.

You can emulate this behavior by dipping each chick’s beak into the water to show them how to drink. Use a shallow saucer or dish with rocks in to keep the chicks from drowning.

What to Feed your new Chicks

Feed this along with chopped hard boiled egg, some grit (as chickens don’t have teeth, the grit stays in their crop and grinds up food so they can digest it), chopped greens or weeds, and plenty of fresh clean water.

Let a Bantam Hen Raise the Chicks

Put the hen and her chicks inside in a safe, predator proof house at night or if you’re away from home. Dogs are notorious for their fondness of a chick dinner.

Allowing your bantam hen to raise the chicks will free you from the worry and stress of doing it yourself. Mother hens love this job, and gladly take on the responsibility. A bantam hen will adopt other chicks of the same age if they are placed under her at night, very quietly. You can allow her to hatch out some, and then add to the clutch by hatching out more chicks in an incubator. Grafting chicks is a great way to build up your supply of birds, and let your mama hen fulfill her destiny.

There are many types of incubators, many reasonably priced as well as plans for home made incubators.

Your Bantam hen will raise the chicks to fully feathered and roosting size, about three to six weeks, when they are abandoned to their own devices.

I let my hens raise their clutch of chicks right alongside the rest of the flock so they are all used to each other. There will still be some bullying as they find their place in the pecking order, both within their own age group, and the older birds in the chicken flock.

Make sure you have enough floor space, as well as roosts so they can get away from more aggressive hens.

You will need to cull some of your birds as they show their true colours, both in their feathers and their nature. Removing some of the roosters (which will possibly be as high as 60% of the hatch) is essential for peace in the hen house. You can also help reduce the quantity of roosters by dowsing the eggs before you set them to hatch.

For more information on what can go wrong with a hatch, see the Egg Hatching Troubleshooting Guide and find out how to avoid the same problem next time.

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What are your best tips on how to make rustic chicken house furniture for your birds? A hint to other chicken gardeners out there on how to make chicken raising easier? Share it!

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