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RE: Spring is here!! It's baby chick season! Here's how to add to your flock, without using a brooder! ♥
We've got 90 chicks due on May 3rd, but they will be in a brooder. I've no place for a hen and chicks, and my coop is too small for them to be in there.
Woo 90!
I understand that. In a small coop, it would be hard, if not impossible. We free range so the hen can take her chicks where ever it is safe. They DO get locked in the coop at night with everyone else, and it's not an issue though.
We have fox that moved here last year. Have lost 3 hens from our Fort Knox in 3 days, but not yesterday. I think what she's doing, as she can't get in, is scaring them so they fly out. I found 1 out at supper time and put her back in, and we still had 15 when I locked up for the night. Gonna have to make the sides higher, I guess.... Or put up a separate perimeter fence so she can't scare them into flying...
Wing trimming can also help if they are hopping the fence! I get some crazy hens that decide they should go over any and every fence they find, so I just catch them atnight and trim those flight feathers. :)