REPRODUCTION
How to have successful hatches
The Diary of our 8 babies! 7 Boys (Speedy, Rodeo, Red, Pois, Brave, Beauty, Pearl) and 1 Girl (Blackie)
Our moms for this adventure are Ginger and Pinky (2 Mugellese) and the dad is Fluffy (a small Cochin).
Ginger an Pinky decided to become moms at the same time and sat on about 15 eggs between them!
We weren`t sure about having baby chicks but we decided to give it a go..
After 20 days of sitting - the 20th of April 2018 - the first egg hatched! The first born was Rodeo ❤️ a fluffy ball of love all black with white chest!
Usually the eggs hatch between 18 and 21 days.
21st of April - second and third babies arrived! Another one black and one grey - and like that, they kept coming until the 25th of April.
Usually you keep only the eggs that hatch till the 5th day distance and no further because the mom will not be able to take care of the new born and will abbound them. (We didn`t know that so remember to leave MAXIMUM 6/7 eggs per chicken and KEEP THE MOMS ALL SEPARATED)
THE HATCH
20th of April until 25th of April
The very first moments ❤️❤️❤️
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KEEP YOUR HENS SEPARATED
It`s very important to have each mom separated with her babies
To avoid any conflict, gelosie and mixing of babies we really recommend to keep the moms all separated!
We had no idea about how important this was -- so we kept the two moms together with all the babies mixed up. But after a week Ginger started to attack Pinky. Maybe for gelosie or a misunderstanding regarding how to split the babies.. or just like humans they had different point of views on how to raise them 😊 so we had to separate them and we had to decide which babies to give to each one of them and this obviously caused a bit of stress...
But if we weren`t around Ginger would have might kill Pinky..
Remember that chickens can fight until death if they think is right to do it!
LEARNING STEPS
The sequence of teaching and learning
Your hen will teach this stuff in this exact order! Fascinating 😊
In the picture the baby is 3/4 days old (22nd / 23rd of April)
IMPORTANT : The first 3/5 days --> Keep very close to the mom a bowl with food and a small one with water - in the bowl with water put stones to avoid the babies to drown - because they will walk into it (keep the stones in until the babies are 3 weeks old at least)
1 week old until 2 weeks old --> move the bowls a bit farther away to encourage the mom and babies to move around. (but not too far)
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THE FIRST 10 DAYS
Essentials with their mom
The first 10 days are the most important ones.
Your baby cheeks will learn this stuff in the below order:
Drink (at first from the eye drops of their mom)
Eat
Recognise the "food noise"
Recognise the "danger noise"
How to prefer wet food
How to swallow long food and how to break it into small peaces
To Scratch
Try new food
Run at high speed
Fight / Play
How to establish the pecking order
(picture of 24th of April - 4/5 days old)
THE HEN SOUND
The typical sound that the mom makes
❤️ This very recognisable sound is the "mom sound" - until your hen makes it it means she is still a mom and needs to take care of her babies.
Usually is followed by the typical posture to keep away danger and other chickens or roosters. The neck is all fluffed up like the rest of the body, the tail well opened and the neck is kept down while the bottom is up in the air with the wings down.
POSTURE OF A HEN WITH BABIES
This is the typical posture of a mom when near other chickens or Roosters. Very defensive posture ! And she also makes the typical "mom sound"
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REMOVING THE HEN
When is the right time to remove the hen?
A few possible situations:
The hen becomes aggressive and starts to bite the babies
The hen doesn`t make the typical "mom sound" anymore
The hen doesn`t call the babies for food anymore
The hen wants to leave the nursery cage
Our case was n. 1 - Ginger became aggressive with them when they were 20 days old. We weren`t too concerned `cause outside was already warm, they could keep each other warm at night and most important they were already well feathered.
In any case, the hen will tell you exactly when is the right time! But If you don`t want to risk any possible injury or fight or worse - just remember that, if your baby chicks are fully feathered, it`s okay to take the hen away if you have to. (around 1 month old)
If your hen is fine and the babies too they can stay together until they are 2 months old or sometimes more. (depending on the variety)
In the pictures our baby chicks at 20 days old (12th of May)
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