What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[johnandkymberley]

I have a broody hen, violet. We are thinking about getting some fertile eggs for her. I have a spare eglu and a farm where the boys can go. Can anyone give me anymore advice? Do I just leave violet to it?? I do have things in place if she rejects them too

Thanks in advance

J&K

[sjp]

to a certain extent you do just leave a broody to it but you need to make sure she gets of the nest at least once a day to feed, drink and poo, some broodies need to be taken off the nest as they get totally focused on sitting the forget the basics of life. on day 18 they go into lock down i.e. you don't leave the door it stops the broody leaving the eggs as they hatch but it also stops any early hatchling from wondering off I tend to put the feeder and drinker in the nest area that's also when I switch over to chick crumb

[Egluntyne]

There is masses of information in the stickies at the top of the section.

[johnandkymberley]

Hi, thanks for your replies,

 

Has anyone used an eglu classic or broodys and chics?? That's all I have

[Purplemaniacs]

I think lots of people have, I have only hatched with an incy but I think you need to take the bars out and protect the chicks with something round the bottom few inches of the run. I think Omlet do a kit but I may be mistaken.

 

Good luck

 

Chrissie

[Purplemaniacs]

Here is the small bird kit for the eglu classic

 

http://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/chicken_keeping/incubation_and_rearing/2430/small_bird_set/

 

Chrissie

[Egluntyne]

Has anyone used an eglu classic or broodys and chics??

 

Ideal for a broody and her chicks, but make sure that you put something along the bottom edge of the run - I used lengths of linkabord- as the little ones will poke their heads out through the weld mesh, or may even escape (I had a Pekin bantam chick go walkabout once - fortunately, I caught her), and they will make a tasty snack for the fox you have recently seen.

 

I also put something at the door, to make a little step up into the Eglu.

 

Remove the roosting bars too.

[chuckmum6]

All of the above, just be careful to use a drinker that new chicks can't fall in and drown - don't use glugs as they can topple off mums back into them from a young age. I discovered this a while ago . I also block up the gap at the back of the Eglu, where the tray is, with rolled up newspaper to stop drafts. Resisting the urge to hatch this year!

[atsw]

Make sure that you put something along the bottom edge of the run or the little ones may escape.

This is really good advise. Chicks can squeeze through the tiniest of gaps in the early days. We completely lost one a few years back, no idea where it went or how it got out, it just disappeared . I also agree that you should put something at the door, to make a little step up into the Eglu and remove the roosting bars from inside - a layer of bedding is all that's needed during incubation and after the hatch.

 

Of course, you can use something as basic as a cardboard box! Here's a picture from June 2009 when my Buff Orpington raised a brood of Pekin chicks. Four years on and, as I type, one of the Pekins is now sat on six LF Silver Laced Wyandotte eggs , which should hatch in the first week of May.

 

 

Andrew

[Egluntyne]

Make sure that you put something along the bottom edge of the run or the little ones may escape.

 

What I actually said was

... make sure that you put something along the bottom edge of the run - I used lengths of linkabord- as the little ones will poke their heads out through the weld mesh, or may even escape (I had a Pekin bantam chick go walkabout once - fortunately, I caught her), and they will make a tasty snack for the fox you have recently seen.