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[TAJ]

With my hatching eggs due to arrive for my broody can anyone who has used a broody in an eglu give me any advice - I can see it is fine for her to sit on the nest, but what about when they are born? The nexting box sides look a bit tall for a baby chick to get in/out of.

 

I have all the stuff (brooder, light, chick feeder/drinker, etc) from having day old chicks in the past, just in case I need to move them after hatching, but just want to ensure if I am leaving them with the broody hen that it is all set up before she starts on the nest as I guess trying to make adjustments nearer the hatch or after chicks are born might be harder.

 

Tracy

[Egluntyne]

Have no fear! My Pekin bantam chicks were fine in an Eglu. Managing to hop in and out of the nest box very quickly.

 

Some pics in **this thread**.

 

I used some Link-a-bord pieces around the edges of the run in case they formed an escape committee, and removed the roosting bars. I also put a brick in front of the door to create a step.

[TAJ]

Thanks Egluntine - totally missed that thread - I must look at the hatching section more often in future!

 

Tracy

[Grovefarm]

Thats great advice, I was suddenly worrying about the same thing, hoping to get some chicks on tuesday and it suddenly hit me that perhaps they wont be able to hop in and out of the nesting box and eglu. Do you think I should keep the door to the eglu closed for a day or two or are chicks keen enough to be outside if they want. I have a winter shade on the eglu cage so they should be fairly well sheltered.

[Egluntyne]

I left the door open so that the Broody and chicks could access the food and water.

[Lesley]

I leave the roosting bars in but fill the Eglu floor with Aubiose until it is level with the top of the roosting bars.

[Chook n Boo Mum]

Buffie my mum, is an Orpington and was looking incredibly uncomfortable in the eglu nestbox, so I turned the rest of the eglu into the nest box, using a cat litter tray to start with and use the real one as the food & water "buffet". I took the roosting bars out (as I needed to use them in the which should have been a rablu but turned out to be a roosting bar-less eglu & was put into emergency use for Blossom the COF ), & packed the pootray up with bricks & slates to the same level as the roosting bars, & covered the slates with hemcore so the babies didn't get any nasty draughts and mum was more comfy.

 

I think next time I clean the eglu out I will remove all the packing as the Bufflings (light Sussex) are now over 5 weeks so are very leggy & feathered & any draughts I'm sure would be lived with

 

I put a mathematical tile outside the door as a step for the littlies, but they managed without it for the first couple of escape attempts, so I'm not sure why I bothered

 

Our run was covered for the first few days from skirt to skirt, but as the weather warmed up & the babies grew more feathers we moved the covers so only the top was covered.....just as the weather broke ............though we've left them with the same covering & they've been fine. After about a week or so we made them a mini freerange pen around the eglu run so they could stretch their legs & mum didn't get cabin fever...........and I stood more chance of getting hold of her rather than having to crawl into the run to administer meds etc.

 

The only alteration we've made in the intervening time is to cover the FR run with raspberry netting to protect the babies a bit from the buzzards which have started flying around us recently

 

Sorry, very waffly, I hope it makes sense

 

Sha x