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[emerald]

Hello,

 

With regret we have lost 5 of our flock of 7 chickens. We've had them for almost 2 years so the children and myself are completly gutted. The two chickens look so lost in our garden on their own.

 

I don't want to just replace my lovely girls nor do the children so we thought we would buy some chicks instead so that it feels more like we are adding to our family rather than simply replacing (hope our feelings make sense) We were thinking 5/6 chicks from a very trusted poultry breeder on the outskirts of Bristol/Bath who is able to sex them very early and on the very odd occassion she's wrong she happily replaces them or refunds.

 

One of the chickens is broody COLUMIBAN BLACKTAIL or also know as a ranger and a light sussex. Do you think they would adopt the chicks or must I defo keep them seperate? The bredder currently has Hybrid Chicks and Welsummer Chicks. Also when would they come off heat as we have a summer holiday and I wouldn't want my friend (who does a fantastic job looking after our chickens and loves it when we go away) to have to worry to much about the chicks.

 

Any advice would be truely welcome. My run is 17ft by 5ft and we have a purple cube.

[The Dogmother]

Columbian Blacktails are lovely chickens, very friendly.

 

You will need a brooder and heat for day-olds though, plus all the usual feed and other paraphernalia

[Redwing]

A broody hen will only adopt chicks of one or two days old, the wetter and stickier the better so immediately after hatch has the best chance of sucess

 

You'd need to keep the other hen away though and she may get a bit lonely as she'll have to stay separated from the little family for 6 weeks or so

 

You could get young chicks and raise them in a brooder under a lamp or electric hen, this stuff all costs money though

 

Brooder raised chicks can go out from about 6 weeks and will need to be kept separate from the two hens until they are about 16 weeks old

 

With young chicks there is a chance they wont make it though, I have hatched about 120 chicks this year and have probably lost about 10 or 11 of those - two died last night

 

Personally i would get youngsters but not chicks, that way they can go straight outside in a separate coop and run

[meezers]

Is your chook broody at the moment ? if she is , and has been sitting a while, you could put fertile eggs under her ( if the breeder will take any boys back for you )or, I've heard people can sneak day old chicks under a hen who has been broody for a while - she will think she's hatched them.

[Lewis]

As Tasha says, 1 or 2 days olds would be best if you wanted to put them under your broody - and the other hen will need to be separated.

 

6 week old chicks are still little and have a lot of growing to do, so would work with the additions to the family, but could go outside straight away in their own little run ... you wouldn't have the cost of a brooder + heat source and your friend shouldn't have a problem looking after them

[emerald]

May thanks for your info,

 

My broody hen has actually been broody for far to long so I doubt she will stay on any eggs. I didn't think about the fact that the other hen would feel left out, and I really don't want to do that.

 

So my next question is how chick like (if you know what I mean)are young one's. I think she may have some that are almost two weeks old.

 

So are you all basically saying very young chicks may not all make it with slightly older ones having a much better chance?

 

My polutry feed supplier has heat lamps with red bulb for about £25 is that good? They have also said I don't need a special brooder I can make one. I have a wooden crate at my alotment which is 3ft by 1.5ft (possibly more) could I make a floor for it say plywood and then fix chicken wire around the outside or I have those ploy fish boxes which are a similar size and already insulated but not sure about the heat lamp affecting the box.

[Egluntyne]

By 2 weeks they are beginning to look pretty scruffy as they are losing their cute fluffy feathers. Unless they are from an autosexing breed, the breeder may not be able to tell whether they are male or female, so you may end up with half a dozen cockerels.

 

3ft by 1 and a half foot is not big enough in my view. Growing chicks are very active.