How to move chicks

[Aspasia]

We have two chicks! One hatched four days ago and one three days ago.

Also, we have a neighbour who has informed us that she plans to have a bonfire within the next few days. (Well, at least she warned us *sigh*)

Ours is a small garden so, even though they free range, there is absolutely no way that the chickens and chicks can escape inhaling at least some of her bonfire smoke.

On the positive side, we had planned to move the chickens to a larger bit of land (under a mile away) at some point anyway, so there is somewhere for them to go. On the minus side, the chicks are still really young and the broody is a first-time mum.

A friend with a trailer can help us move the chickens and their coop on Wednesday.

Another minus is that the broody (Daw) incubated and hatched the eggs in the nesting box of an Eglu Cube, which is high off the ground. (I know: we should have moved her right from the start, but I didn't have the heart. ) The chicks are still in there (with food and water, of course) and Daw is still sitting on three other eggs which have done nothing at all since the last one hatched, so I suppose they must be duds.

Getting the chicks out of the Eglu was always going to be a problem, of course, even if we didn't have to move them to a different site. I have a plan, but I'd like some advice on whether it is going to work.

The part of the run under the Cube already has heavy-duty covers on all sides to keep out the wind and rain (though there are gaps at the corners). We have put a cat carrier underneath the Cube, with nesting materials inside it, and the door removed. The whole carrier is inside a cardboard box on its side, in order to reduce heat loss and drafts through the ventilation slits. My plan is to lift out the two chicks and three eggs tomorrow afternoon, while it's warm - hopefully while Daw is distracted (hah!) and put them into the cat carrier nest. My theory is that Daw will hear her chicks and go to them. While she may not like her new nesting box as much, I think she will stay there because she will not be able to get the chicks back up the Eglu ladder. As I say, that was always going to be a problem anyway, as soon as the chicks needed to come out of the nesting box.

Up until Loki's Daughter advised us that she was going to host a major conflagration, the idea was that they would stay there until the chicks were a just bit older, and then we would move them all. The advantage of Daw and her chicks already being in the cat carrier was that we could just wait until they were all inside, then pop on the door, take it out of the cardboard box and move them that way, with as little distress as possible. Now it is looking as though we will need to move them within 24 hours of them being in the new nest, and I'm not sure how well that is going to work out. Especially as we are going to have to partially dismantle the Eglu and then completely move it before they are even used to their new home.

We do have an older wooden coop and run: perhaps it might be better to put the cat carrier in there from the start, until everything else is dismantled, moved and properly set up? It is a very narrow run and the cat carrier will take up most of the width. It's also less protected than the underneath of the Eglu.

We'll also need to move the other two hens at the same time. I'm reluctant to separate them from Daw and her chicks as there have been no problems so far with either of them attacking the chicks. The bottom hen does peck Daw when she comes out of the coop, but she has been doing that since Daw first became broody, and she has not gone for the chicks at all. I think she will probably leave Daw alone in the cat carrier, since it will also be a 'nest'. Neither of the other two hens has shown any interest in going into the cat carrier 'nest' so there's no reason for them to resent Daw having it. I'm reluctant to introduce problems in our tiny flock by separating out Daw and the chicks, only to have to reintroduce them later. Daw was previously top hen.

Thanks in advance for any advice/thoughts about this.

[manda]

Is there anyway they can spend time out tomorrow with the cat carrier as a place to go with her chicks?

I would say if I was going to do it I'd be shifting her at night....get the cat carrier ready and put her and the chicks in it and then leave them in it overnight....then in the morning you can lift her and the chicks all in one go......

If you shift her nesting site even if she can hear the chicks she may just abandon everything....depends on the hen.

[Aspasia]

Thanks so much for the quick reply, Manda!

We can't really choose our time, unfortunately, because we're relying on a friend who has to fit it into her schedule. Also, we live so far north that, at this time of year, there actually isn't any true dark, so the hens take themselves to bed pretty late and are easily roused (the otters here are diurnal as a result). It really was not the best time for Loki's Daughter to have a bonfire.

I was thinking that, if they go into the cat carrier in the afternoon, they would use it as a base in the day and then spend the night there, because the chicks would not be able to get back into the Eglu. So that would fit well with what you suggest. Thank you!

I really, really hope Daw would not abandon her chicks. I'm hopeful because she is utterly besotted with them. Actually, she has been a dream broody, apart from probably sitting on the other eggs for rather too long, and a tendency to hook in every new-laid egg regardless of how long she had already been sitting. She has taken herself off the eggs every day to eat and void, but not stayed away more than about 20 minutes; and now that the chicks are here, she is protective and also teaching them to eat and drink. And she barely leaves them at all. A couple of days ago, when I opened the egg hatch to put in clean food and water and check the nesting material, the fresh air stimulated her to get up and go out briefly, but when she heard her chicks cheeping loudly, she was frantic to get back to them immediately. Because the egg hatch was open, her chicks sounded loudest from outside the coop, and she rushed out there immediately and got into a bit of a tizzy because she couldn't get to them that way. She just lost her head and seemed to forget that she needed to go inside the run and up the ladder, even when I put the egg hatch back on. So I took it off again and lifted her in, and she seemed really delighted and grateful.

Perhaps it would be best to leave the new nest under the Cube though, rather than putting it into the old coop, so that it is as close to her original nest as possible? It will be under the Cube at the new site as well, for shelter. And maybe if I mix some of her old nesting material in with the new (or even just transfer all of the old stuff for now, instead of new) that might help? It is smelling distinctly of baby chick in there right now, as I haven't been able to do a complete nesting material change since the chicks hatched.

Again, thanks very much for your help.

[manda]

Well...you gotta work with what you've got ..so little dark you might as well go for when suits

I'd certainly transfer some of the bedding but if she is that committed to her chicks she will follow their cheeping....if you can put them in the cat carrier first then she will follow.

If the chicks are more than a couple of days old then I would say the other eggs are duds....even if they hatched they would struggle to survive because she will take the others off to feed etc and the eggs will cool making it hard for any viable chicks to hatch (the membrane on the inside of the egg will harden).

You could have a listen and see if you can hear any movement but I wouldn't hold much hope for the remaining eggs.

[Aspasia]

Thanks you so much for your advice, Manda!

They are moved, and all seems to be going very well so far!

It was warmer than usual this morning, so I opened the egg hatch at about 11:30 and left it off, which let in plenty of light and fresh air (not cold!). After a while, when she seemed to perk up, we scattered some corn a little distance away to encourage Daw to get off her chicks. She took her time, but did so eventually. Of course, the minute I picked up a chick, she turned into an enraged feather duster, flew at me and pecked me until we had both chicks in the cat carrier nest under the Eglu. I don't blame her, though, and was really quite pleased at her commitment!

We put the eggs in with the chicks, although I noticed that Daw had buried the eggs in the nesting material in the old nest, so I thought she might have given up on them, but had no way to roll them right out. Sure enough, the first thing she did after checking on her chicks was dig them out of the new nest and leave them on the ground.

Currently, she is happily digging up the garden for her chicks, who are staying close by her. The chicks seem to be enjoying the sunlight and running around with her. The other two hens are leaving the chicks alone, and the bottom hen is no longer attacking Daw at all (so far... but she had been attacking her every time she saw her!). Daw herself is less fluffed up and anxious-looking, although she ran up the ladder to check on the old nest a couple of times. We've left the egg hatch off, so that it's light and breezy and not so much like the nest she remembers - and, of course, she can see that her chicks are not there. And we've taken all the nesting material out of it for now. She seems really happy and content. One of her chicks ended up on the outside of the (open) run while Daw and the other chick were inside. It seemed not to be able to find its way back, so my partner picked it up and took it back to the run entrance, and got pecked for his pains. So far, so good!

Now that they're settled and Daw seems comfortable that her chicks are not in there, we'll clean out the nest box and put just a little material in it for the other hens, then put the hatch back on. She had better get used to it that way - and to the fact that her chicks are definitely not there but outside, with her - before they all settle for the night. I hope that way, she won't be fooled into spending the night in there rather than with her chicks. Next trick will be to get them to go back to the cat carrier and sleep in there. We'll try to encourage it by putting the chicks' food in the cat carrier, rather than outside, at least for the next few days.

Thanks so much for your help, Manda. I was feeling a real lack of confidence, and really needed the feedback and advice.

[manda]

Excellent news!!! Might be a good idea (if you can) to put something round the bottom of the run so the chicks can't get through the netting...it won't be long before they can't fit but all it would need for one to get outside whilst you're not there and a cat or other bird could have it.

[Aspasia]

Thanks, Manda!

They are a bit too big to fit through the mesh, thank goodness, but they are extra-safe as we have the whole thing - apart from the door - covered with an old salmon-net (a very heavy but fine-mesh net) to give them extra protection against the wind and against predators. The chicks wouldn't be able to push it aside, so they'd never get more than a beak through!

They were all a bit nervous about coming out of their run this morning, and have spent a lot of the day inside it (3 metres long) by choice. Having said that, it's been less sunny and more breezy today than last week (gusting over 35mph) so they might have liked the protection from the wind, as well as the comfort of a familiar place.

I'm so relieved that we got them all there safely! They'll be much better off once they settle in, as it's much, much bigger than our garden, and there's a greater variety of forage for them, too.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Aspasia]

Just a follow-up post for anyone who's interested.

Everybody seems to have settled in well. They're loving all the foraging opportunities in their new home - to the extent that they are eating hardly any of their layers mash.

I needn't have worried so much about the ground-level nesting box, because the chicks have been able to fly up to the Eglu cube's pop-hole since just before they were two weeks old. I couldn't believe it when I saw the tiny fluff-balls do it! So they're all sleeping in the Cube again. Last night, they flew in first, and hassled their mum until she stopped eating and came in after them. The chicks are just amazingly mobile and competent, and I'm really happy that we moved them all.

[manda]

Excellent news....amazing how quickly they grow isn't it. Just keep an eye on the layers ...mine do that during the summer a lot and sometimes egg numbers go to nothing because they're not eating enough layers....just in case

[Aspasia]

Thanks for that, Manda. I did wonder whether they would be getting all the nutrients they need, but it didn't occur to me that it would affect egg production (doh!).

Having said that, I'd rather they didn't lay if they're not easily able to do so, as I'd rather have healthy and happy chickens who live long lives and lay comfortably. If they're happier eating greens and seeds than laying for now, then that's fine by me. I'm sure they'll live longer and be healthier by following their natural rhythms.

[manda]

I have so many chickens and no eggs...I sometimes wonder..they're hiding them somewhere

[Aspasia]