How to raise Backyard Chickens: [CHICKENS-101] Re: Eggs a Hatchin'!

Hi Laura, what great looking chicks & your cornich cross is adorable, thankyou so much for sharing :)JAne & co
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, Laura Quick <goatsnchickens@...> wrote:
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> I got chicks! Apparently I did the math wrong, lol, I was expecting chicks to start hatching on Saturday. I intended to move the nest box to a brooding pen tonight under cover of darkness. However I was greeted with a tiny face peering out of the box when I checked on my Mama Cornish Cross this morning. While I quickly set up the brooding pen, two of the chicks tumbled out of the nest box. One was okay, the other had been pecked, it may have survived but it would have been blind.
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> The hen had chosen to set in a nest box 6' off the ground and I had to move the nest, and the eggs â€" I kept the position and orientation of the eggs as close to the original as I could. The Mom let me move then into the nest before walking over and setting again. I placed the chicks in front of her, she lifted her wings and they ran underneath. This is her first time setting, so far everything is going well. Within an hour another has hatched. I could hear peeping and a couple of eggs had pipped already.
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> I don't leave the mom and chicks in with the grown birds, I separate them out until they are a couple of months old. I know this is not common, but it has worked for me.Â
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> I've put out water with vitamins and electrolytes (with pebbles) and food...hoping I'm not forgetting anything.Â
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> This never fails to excite me.
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