Hi, I bought six chick last Sunday, thought I had the time to build a small 2x6 brooding pen that very day. No such luck! Is it to late to put the chicks under a brooding hen? I've not had very good luck with my hens sitting any eggs. Only one out of 9 wants to sit, and she ends up breaking most of them. A Friend give me some banty hens, but they havn't settled in yet. Thanks for all your help!!

-- Pam (psanford@terraworld.net), August 31, 2001

Answers

We used a box with a drop light for about a week before moving the chicks outside. Depending on the temperature, you may be able to move your chicks out during the day, shutting them up in a draft-free box at night. They will huddle for warmth, or you could keep a light on them at night.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), August 31, 2001.

I have used large metal wash tubs or plastic storage containers to brood chickes. Put chicken over the top of the container and place a heat light on it. This will keep the chicks warm.

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), August 31, 2001.

I wanted to say. "Put chicken wire over the top of the container and a light on top of that."

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), August 31, 2001.

You didn't say if that only hen (out of your 9) is setting right now. I'm assuming she's currently broody? If she's been sitting on the nest as a broody hen for a couple of weeks, you can take the existing eggs out from under her (if she hasn't broken them all) and *at night* slip the wk old chicks under her. Make sure you're up the next morning (before she is preferably) to supervise. If she looks like she'll do harm to them, take the chicks before she kills them all. It's a risky move because you never know if the hen will accept them as her own, or turn vicious & kill them. On the other hand, if this one hen is not currently broody don't even try this. Better to do as the other posters suggested and brood them yourself.

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), August 31, 2001.

I use a kids plastic wading pool. You can just dump the litter into the compost pile and hose out and dry the pool and put in new litter. Real easy and they can live in the house or where ever until they are feathered out.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), August 31, 2001.

Opps, Yes Buk Buk, the one hen I'm referring to has been broody for about 3 to 4 weeks now. I'll do as you suggest tonight and let you know how it turns out. Thanks

-- Pam (psanford@terraworld.net), August 31, 2001.

If you don't have your brooder ready, and you still have chicks (this is about a week after your question), use either a cardboard box or a wading pool with some kind of extender to cut drafts, give them a shelter to get away from the heat in case the lamp gets too hot on them, and hang a brooder lamp from the ceiling or a frame of some kind over the enclosure. We kept ours (we had 9 initially) in the basement until they were feathered out enough to go outside to the brooder house, and by then we had the brooder house ready for occupancy and about a hundred more chicks to keep them company.

-- Claudia Glass (glasss2001@prodigy.net), September 04, 2001.