A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (57 page)

You may need to be a mother to incubated chicks!

Watch the chicks closely, especially during the critical first few days. They will need chick crumbs and fresh water in a drinker they can’t get into, situated away from the heat source. As they have no mother hen to teach them, you may need to dip their beaks in the water, being careful it doesn’t go into their nostrils. Scattering some chick crumbs on to a sheet of paper will encourage them to investigate and they will soon learn to use the feeder. Supply some fine insoluble grit too.

Some people prefer not to use shavings in the brooder in case the chicks eat them. Having food constantly available will discourage them from eating their bedding but you could use a slip-resistant mat covered with paper towels during the first few days. Newspaper is too slippery and can lead to leg deformities.

Keep bedding clean and dry (raise the drinker slightly or stand it on wire mesh). Dampness and overcrowding will cause serious health problems. Hunched, listless chicks and diarrhoea are signs of coccidiosis (see
Chapter 11
), requiring prompt treatment. Immediately separate any chicks that appear unwell.

Chills and stress can lead to pasted vents, preventing the chicks from passing droppings. Use warm water to clean the vent area and dry carefully.

Abrupt changes of temperature aren’t good for young birds. Don’t suddenly take away their heat lamp and move them to an outside pen. Huddling together for warmth at night may result in suffocation.

Depending on the time of year, the young birds can be moved to an indoor or outdoor rearing coop when they are fully feathered at about eight weeks. They need a warm, dry house, large enough for them all to shelter comfortably in bad weather. Feed can be gradually changed to growers’ pellets; their ongoing care will be the same as for naturally hatched chicks.

Key Points

•
Hybrids and light laying breeds rarely go broody

•
A broody hen has puffed-up feathers and her breast feels warm

•
Hens shouldn’t be allowed to remain broody if not required for hatching eggs

•
Regularly collecting eggs helps discourage broodiness

•
For a determined broody a coop with a wire floor is the only remedy

•
Watch out for ‘secret broodies’ in spring and summer

•
Decide what will happen to the males before putting eggs to hatch

•
Spring or early summer is the best time for natural hatching

•
A separate broody coop is needed for hatching chicks

•
Only hatch clean eggs of standard size and shape, with no cracks

•
Let eggs rest in a cool place for twelve hours after travelling

•
Put all the eggs under the broody at the same time

•
Feed mixed corn to a sitting hen – she should leave the nest once a day

•
Hens’ eggs take twenty-one days to hatch, bantams’ about eighteen to twenty days

•
Use a water container the chicks can’t fall into and feed chick crumbs

•
Keep the chicks’ environment clean and secure

•
Don’t introduce young birds to the flock until they are mature

•
Artificial incubation requires some skill and experience

•
An incubator provides warmth as well as regulating humidity and airflow

•
Good hygiene is essential when using an incubator

•
Candle the eggs but don’t replace infertile eggs with fresh ones

•
Watch humidity levels carefully

•
Stop turning eggs two or three days before hatching is due

•
Avoid opening the incubator during hatching

•
Helping chicks out of their shells can tear the attached blood vessels

•
Artificially incubated chicks need a brooder and heat lamp

•
Watch the chicks to gauge the correct temperature and check them regularly

•
Artificially incubated chicks may not know how to eat and drink at first

•
Dampness and overcrowding will cause serious health problems

•
Don’t subject young birds to sudden changes of temperature

Are you going to hatch some eggs? First, make sure you can answer these questions from
Chapter 13
.

Question One

What should you do if a hen goes broody and you don’t want her to hatch any chicks?

(a) Leave her alone

(b) Give her some pottery eggs to sit on

(c) Discourage her from being broody

Question Two

When is the best time for a hen to start sitting on eggs?

(a) Spring

(b) Autumn

(c) Winter

Question Three

Where is the best place for a hen to hatch her eggs?

(a) In a separate broody coop

(b) In the nest-box

(c) Under a bush

Question Four

When do eggs start to develop into chicks?

(a) Before they are laid

(b) As soon as they are laid

(c) When the hen starts sitting on them

Question Five

What is a brooder?

(a) A machine for hatching eggs

(b) A heated area where chicks live after hatching

(c) A special feeder for young chicks

Answers

One (c); Two (a); Three (a); Four (c); Five (b)

If you knew all the answers, you are well on the way to hatching your first chicks!

‘Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched’: You never know how many eggs are going to hatch into chicks and it’s also true that you shouldn’t rely on something happening until it actually happens! This proverb comes from
Aesop’s Fables
.

Why was the egg scared?

Because it was a little chicken!

What do you call a chicken in a shell-suit?

An egg!

What do you get if you cross a chicken with a duck?

A bird that lays down!

Make a cheap and easy egg candler! You’ll need a toilet roll tube, a small bright torch and some sticky tape.

Cut four slits in one end of the toilet roll tube and fit it around the torch handle, overlapping the slits. Secure with sticky tape.

Carefully place the egg on top of the tube and switch on the torch. What can you see? (This works best in a darkened room.)

Chickens aren’t hypochondriacs. They can hide illness remarkably well. A hen may go to bed looking absolutely fine, only to be found cold and stiff the next morning, leaving her bewildered owner wondering, ‘What did I do wrong?’