Most picking is the result of overcrowding. Our hens raised their chicks happily in the flock. We never had a problem with older chickens picking on younger ones or vice versa. Many sources say that you can’t keep a flock of mixed ages.
BREEDING CHICKENS 101 HOW TO
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When the chicks have feathered out, reduce the temperature by 5☏ per week until they are 6 weeks old, then switch their feed from chick starter to grower mash. (It also reduces picking and cannibalism among chicks.) This keeps the temperature at 92☏ (33☌) at 2 inches above the floor. As well as chick starter feed and clean water, they need a draft-free brooder pen with a red brooder lamp on at all times. Tending baby chicks isn’t difficult, nor need it be elaborate. (Did you know that there are best times for setting eggs under a hen or in an incubator? You can find out more about setting chicken eggs by the Moon’s Sign here.) Raising Chicks An incubator must be monitored diligently chicks left too long after hatching will die of dehydration or picking. On the whole, we found it best to leave hatching to the hen. You can hatch replacement chicks yourself with a home incubator. Bantams are famously broody, and a bantam hen will hatch other hens’ eggs. Broodiness-the instinct to sit on eggs until they hatch-has been bred out of a lot of chickens, but we always had one or two who would begin to sit tight on the nest and peck if we tried to remove their eggs. Hens will lay perfectly well without one. Check your zoning regulations some places allow hens, but not roosters.
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Of course, you’ll also need a rooster to get fertile eggs. If you already have chickens (or know someone who does), there’s always the option of hatching your own chicks. (“Battery hens” are not good candidates for a farm flock-they’re confined in tiny cages, debeaked, and made to produce so hard that they’re “laid out” at 2 to 3 years of age.) Unless you have someone with a small flock nearby who wants to replace older hens and will sell their “old girls” to you, chances are, you’ll have to buy pullets or chicks.
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These days, you can even go online to order chicks and get them shipped to your door (or local post office). Then there’s always the “ask a friend with chickens to hatch some for you” approach. There are a number of ways to go about getting chickens! Most often, chicks can be bought locally in the spring, from farm supply stores or small farms themselves. ( Note: This is the fourth article of our six-part Raising Chickens 101 series.) Where to Get Baby Chickens