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[chocolatefudge]

This really is my first time! Never done this before. Had to have teenage son show me how (that makes me feel old). Anyhow, my question is about my broody chicken called Pepperpot (not original I Know). She is sitting on 6 Cream Legbar eggs and it is day 2, although she had been sitting on false eggs prior to this for 5 days. I'm ok with the turfing off the nest in the evening for food, drink and mini-cowpat, even though she is not impressed (to say the least). Advice would really be from anyone who has raised chicks in an Eglu, especially how it all works after hatching. How do you let hen have access to chicks and her food and drink and run without them all coming out before it is time for them to, plus any other advice would be much appreciated. Also I have been told not to turf her off after day 18 and was wondering how to provide food and drink close enough to her nest, plus how can anyone hang on to number 2,s for two or three days?

[bronze]

Do you need to stop them? I know if hatching without mum they have to have a lamp but surely if mums around then they're ok to leave to her care as they would do in the wild. Hopefully someon will come along who knows. I've only researched incubating them

[bronze]

Or do yuo mean free range?

 

I get so confused because when some people say let them out of the eglu they mean out of the run. I think of letting them out of the eglu as in the purple igloo shaped thing into the run

[Lindy Loo]

I have just hatched 3 Araucana chicks under my broody Gingernut ranger. I just made sure that I hand fed Ginger (yes, another original name) every evening with bread soaked in water and/or yoghurt with a bit of mixed corn for good measure. A couple of days before due date I removed the roosting bars from the eglu and covered the slippery tray with hemcore. When the chicks hatched I carried the eglu out of the hen run and put a box on its side covered with wood shavings inside where the roosting bars usually would be. I did this because I didn't think the chicks could easily scale the sides of the nesting area to get to the food and water. If I hadn't had the additional eglu I would have just used a box on its side with the wood shavings to add a bit of comfort and privacy from the rest of the hens!

I didn't give the chicks any food for a day or two as a breeder told me that they absorb the rest of the yolk from inside the egg into their system just before they hatch and they need to use this up otherwise it will go bad inside their little tummies.

Almost 2 weeks on Mum and chicks are doing just fine. They are lucky to have an eglu and run to themselves. Ginger makes sure that they are kept warm and they can often be found tucked under her wings. They are spending more and more time running up and down the run doing, well, just what chickens normally do. Poo wasn't a problem - I think nature kicks in and slows things down. Several days after the hatch Ginger had a massive "clearout" which must have purged her whole system!

[chocolatefudge]

Thanks very much Lindy Loo for advice really helpful. You mentioned hand feeding Gingernut from day 18 before her eggs hatched, did you give her seperate water or just what was in the bread that you had soaked for her?

How many eggs did she sit on and how many hatched? Also, how many cockerels did you end up with and will you keep them or....... I wondered if anyone else has advice on this one. How close together did they all hatch and did you have to remove any unhatched ones? Did you candle them or just wait and see? After chicks have hatched how long did they stay in Eglu before you let them into the Eglu run (not enclosure or garden). and for the first few days ( when they are still in cardboard box) what did you put their water in? Really sorry about all the questions. thanks very much.

[Lindy Loo]

I think the only water Ginger had was in the soaked bread although there was always water available in the run - I don't know if she ever nipped off the eggs for a quick drink or something to eat when I wasn't looking!

She sat on 3 eggs and 3 hatched. Araucana's are apparently difficult to sex so I guess I'll know how many are cockerels when they start crowing. One of my boys wants a cockerel called Bob (why? I don't know) so we'll keep one of them. The others I will try to rehome. I'm not considering the alternatives....

All the eggs hatched within about 12 hours of each other. When I went out in the morning and lifted ginger to check on the eggs there were 2 chicks hatched and the other shell was pipped. The last one had hatched completely by the time I got home from work. The last one is slightly smaller than the other chicks but just as healthy. I did candle the eggs at about 16 days but I must have been rubbish at it as I thought they were infertile. After candling I only kept the eggs under Ginger because I had 3 eggs in an incubator due to hatch at the same time and I wanted Ginger to take care of those chicks too. sadly, although the eggs were all fertile none of them hatched. The chicks started to go out into the eglu run the day after they hatched. Ginger was always close by their sides. In fact they spent most of the first few days tucked under Ginger's wing but out in the run. I just put their water in a little plastic container about 2 cm deep with marbles covering the bottom so that if they fell in they would be able to scramble out again. They are still in their own box within the eglu and are not with the rest of the girls. I don't know when, or how, I'm going to put them all together but not for a number of weeks yet.

I hope this helps - let us all know how you are getting on. I will try to post a photo of my little ones soon.

[chocolatefudge]

Thanks Lindy. Today is day 9 (is that all!!!), I feel like I'm waiting for an elephant to give birth, seems ages when you're waiting doesn't it? Pepperpot has actually been sitting for 14 days as she was on false eggs before this and we didn't really know what we were doing and should have got some fertilized eggs sooner. Still, she is still taking the whole job very seriously indeed and hasn't budged an inch. Poor thing is getting a little stiff when I lift her off the nest now and even more grumpy. I'll send some pictures off my two other girls Millie and Mollie when I learn how to work out this Forum business, it's like learning a foreign language! (showing my age I think). I'm probably making it a lot more complicated than it actually is (or so my 18 year old tells me), still, I will get there eventually, probably when I'm drawing my pension!