Locking Bar Eglu Classic

[ChickenBruce]

Greetings all.

Myself and The Beloved share a garden with a small flock, happy enough in a cube and regular supervised outings around the garden;

Bluebell, a large Bluebell.

Gwen, a Black Rock

Pearl, a lavender pekin bantam

Daisy, a dark pekin bantam

Dotty, a silver laced wynadotte bantam

Lotty, a gold laced wynadotte bantam

Sparky, half-pekin, half something cockerel...very gentle and caring of his ladies.

 

A friend wants a cockerel from Sparky and Daisy.

As Daisy has a tendency to broodiness anyway, I left her to sit on one of her eggs in the nesting area of the cube. Unfortunately, a few days later, another egg appeared under her that resembled her own and only then did I think to mark them. (The rest we harvest for eating and trade).

 

Anyway, 3 weeks later, we have a chick, now 4 days old and okay in every way. It is eating and drinking well and Daisy seems to be doing a good job of mothering. No bother from the other hens and Daisy will permit one to share the nesting space with her at night.

Whilst the chick has a definite pekin rump, it is dark brown, with golden patches, not unlike a penguin in pattern.

Daisy is regularly hand fed her usual, plus treats and remains in good fettle.

To reduce potential conflicts, I removed the roosting bars from the cube and added Hemcore and the other hens have started laying in this space.

 

Currently, the chick is unable to move from nesting box to the rest of the cube.

At what point should I allow this to happen?

 

I'm also aware that the chick is being raised in a fairly dim space, although I know of broods brought up within the darker recesses of barns and so on. Could this be an issue?

 

I intend to raise the level of hemcore in the nesting area, when the time is right.

The cube already has a proper ramp, as opposed to the useless plastic ladder and there is no gap between ramp and cube.

 

The second egg may, or may not hatch and if current chick turns out to be a hen, then this experiment will be repeated. At least the disposal of a cockerel won't be an issue.

 

Thank you for reading and for any responses and insights offered.

 

Best Reagrds,

Bruce

[ChickenBruce]

Seems I need one of those tumbleweed smileys.

 

Okay...the answer to my question is one week.

Daisy and chick were both happily wandering around the coop with the others this afternoon.

Dotty and Lotty have been spending every night with Daisy and her chick, with Sparky positioning himself to see what's going on.

I let them all out into the garden for a supervised wander, with no problems. Sparky in particular seems to be showing an interest, but he was always close to Daisy. If concerned, Daisy will raise a wing like a shield, over the chick and growl. A pair of collared doves spook her the most.

Given that Daisy had appeared to have abandoned her second egg, I'd assumed it was a dud...until it went cheep.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[Daphne]

I'm sorry you didn't get an answer to your first query

 

But its lovely to hear the catch up

 

Its a good job Daisy isn't in our garden....I've just seen a cock pheasant wandering about....for the first time since we've lived here as we aren't very near any shoots

[superkitty]

If concerned, Daisy will raise a wing like a shield, over the chick and growl. A pair of collared doves spook her the most.

 

That is ADORABLE. Do all hens do that with their chicks?

[Daphne]

Yes, its quite common, its the safest place for them Some growers also try to snuggle under Mum's wings at night - even when they are Large Fowl and she is a bantie and they are old enough to know better

[sjp]

my lot nearly always alarm call when doves or pigeons fly over but ignore the gulls crows and cats etc

[sandyhas3chucks]

mine try to snuggle under my hair when on my shoulder and under each other....

sooooo sweet

[ChickenBruce]

So the second egg hatched and became Scruff. Scruff got an advanced course in chicken, as it was following Daisy and Chick 1 out and about after less than 3 days.

We were initially worried that Daisy might neglect Chick 2, whilst looking after Chick 1. This proved not to be the case, although Chick 1 fell victim to a sparrowhawk. Dang!

Chick 2 became Scruff, until we know the gender and Daisy has been an excellent mother in all respects. The rest of the flock have accepted Scruff, who spends a lot of time being fed by Sparky and is slowly becoming a little more independent.

 

I mentioned I had a Gold-Laced Wyandotte and a Silver-Laced Wyandotte, Lotty and Dotty. Dotty became extremely broody and so, having successfully concluded Experiment No.1, I let Dotty brood over 3 eggs; one from herself, one from Lotty and one from Pearl. Unlike Daisy, Dotty never needed removing to the food and kept herself fed and watered. This was possibly because her best friend, Lotty, shared the brooding.

 

Exactly 21 days after being laid, a baby Lotty arrived and spent the day under both Lotty and Dotty.

Daisy always takes Scruff to bed earlier than the other birds and, when she arrived in the nest box, she also acquired the chick.

The following morning, both Daisy and Scruff left for their usual routine, abandoning the chick, which was immediately settled under Dotty/Lotty. Later that day, a second chick arrived and, during the day, both shared the brooding. Today, Chick No.3 joined the flock and I've found all chicks under Lotty or Dotty or both. (I know that, because of Sparky's input, these are not really baby Lotty and Dotty, but they have the same colouring as their mothers...-ish)

 

It appears that, on the one hand, care maybe shared between at least Dotty and Lotty, with some input from Daisy.

On the other, I may end up with totally confused chicks and a dysfunctional family unit! Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending upon your viewpoint), we're both mental health nurses, so dysfunction won't phase us.

 

Are there any other examples of shared brooding and chick-raising out there, or will the chicks orientate automatically to one mother or another?

I'm off for a couple of weeks to keep a close eye on things and, as experiments go, this one's quite fun.

 

We've other friends who now keep chickens and we've supplied them with 24 varied eggs to be brooded so far. Sparky seems to be doing well, as he now has 24 progeny all over the Furness area.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[Shirl]

Thanks for some fascinating posts. I've only ever hatched one lot of chicks using an incubator so your experience is very different from mine and very interesting. I look forward to an update and maybe some pics?

[ChickenBruce]

It was getting a bit crowded and tense in the nesting area, with Daisy, Scruff, Dotty, Lotty, Pearl and 3 small chicks, with Sparky looming over the lot of them.

So I did what i did for daisy...remove the roosting bars and fill the base of the rest of the coop with Hemcore. The little ones still cannot yet jump into that area, but the rest of the flock have now adapted to using that area to lay their eggs and chill.

Cleaning isn't as easy as emptying trays, but a little extra time keeps both areas clean.

 

New observations: Both Lotty and Dotty hold onto their poo until I bring them out in a morning. Then they each lay a fire extinguisher! (This is handy, so I can check for health and worms...all clear still, which is good).

 

Second, the three chicks are much less upset when mums are away and seem to look after each other. Certainly, all 3 appeared quicker on the uptake with chickcrumb and drinking. Both Dotty and Lotty continue to share the brooding of the 3 and, touch wood, all is going well with Experiment No.2.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[ChickenBruce]

The Missus is away with her sister, so has access to a PC but was...er....'distressed' at missing the 'babies formative moments'!

I think she means their first toddle, their first smile and first poo.

However, to let her see what she's really missing and knowing how much you guys love the pics that make you go all gooey;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqWo3cNJyuo&feature=youtube_gdata

 

Regards,

Bruce

[Snowy]

How adorable!

That reminds me to go and post some updates of my 3

[ChickenBruce]

Update: 3 chicks and two devoted mothers, so all seems well. Neither of the mothers or chicks seem to show any preferences for each other. Another observation is that the chicks will copy each other, so if one eats, the others will eat, if one drinks, so too will the others, if one bolts for cover...well, you get the idea.

This was particularly interesting to watch when the mothers were clearly wanting the chicks to follow them down to the ground, out of the box. The 3 little ones found themselves at the top, clearly happy to be with each other and not progress, much to the distress/annoyance of mothers.

The following day, all 3 seemed to make a joint decision to follow the mums.

 

All are now out and about on a regular basis and I only have to manage my own anxiety re hawks. That said, being later in the year, any local hawks don't have their own chicks to feed, plus, the little ones are quite adept, individually, at bolting for cover, to be quickly joined by siblings and mothers.

 

I'm thinking that Experiment 2 is now concluded to a satisfactory...er....conclusion.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[Daphne]

[Chook n Boo Mum]

As I'm off work poorly, I'm wandering around here catching up......and what a wonderful post to catch up with

 

I also had a good duo-mama hatching experience last year......Acorn (black frizzle pekin) & Lavender (lavender pekin) set up camp in the eglu nest box and stayed put beautifully with their 3 hatchlings, 2 girls & a boy well after the hens have usually got snippy & left the bubbas....I did have them separated from the main flock as I have about 20 more than you & trouble is much more likely with so many birds, I felt it wasn't a risk I was prepared to take .....Lavender seemed to usually have the girls Bramble & Bracken with her as they FR, and Acorn had Birch who was soon after rehomed.....he'd started crowing competitions with his father Baby & another brother in a different pen

 

Lovely video...cheeky little lavender girl, just like my Lavs

[Plum]

Wow Bruce its fascinating to see how your girls shared the babies and loved the video. How is Scruff doing?

[ChickenBruce]

Thank you for the interest...

'Scruff' is now Gertrude, or Gerty, now that we're certain it is a she. Still sticking close to mum Daisy, but much more independent. She loves Primula cheese, out of a tube, placed on my finger. She'll peck it then actually lick it off.

 

Dotty and Lotty continue to look after chicks 1,2 and 3. Chicks 1 and 3 have little crests budding and definitely the more robust of the trio. Probably boys. Chick 2 doesn't have any sign of a creast at all and is more reserved. Interestingly, Dotty is the more robust of the pair of wyndottes and she has the boys most of the time, whilst Lotty seems to have inherited the girl. That said, the flock of 3 mixes it with both and will also take itself off for an adventure, freaking Lotty and Dotty well out!

 

This morning, I saw a reassuring sign of capability, when a collared dove flew over and landing on one of our arches. Both Dot and Lot went into battlestations mode; head down, wings out and 'growling', whilst the 3 snuck in behind them.

 

Regards,

Bruce

[sparkysmum]

Have loved reading your thread but couldn't help laughing as Sparky is my beautiful almost 16yr old collie cross and Daisy is my gorgeous Yorkie