It happens that a hen-hen, for some internal reason, lays on its eggs not in the spring, as it should be, but in late summer. In nature, all events are interconnected, and each of them has its own deadline, but what if this deadline is violated. How to raise chickens if the hen has decided to sit on the brood in the autumn.? In this case, we will get autumn chickens and we will, as the saying goes, count chickens in the fall.
Any host knows how difficult it is to cope with the chicken instinct to incubate. If your household has such an unusual situation, you can try to raise chickens in the fall. For this, of course, you will have to try, and you can’t do without special devices.
Chicken brood hen - fall care
First of all, you need to provide a chicken hen a comfortable place to hatch and rid it of temperature stress. In the fall, it often freezes, and low temperatures, of course, will have a detrimental effect on the health of chickens.
If your chicken coop is not very warm and small in size, a spacious wooden box with a window and a lid is best for a brood hen. We place it under an improvised greenhouse from a dense film. We make the greenhouse as for germinating seedlings, in appearance it will resemble an Indian wigwam. It is better to use the film as dense as possible, for example, reinforced, this can be found in hardware stores. The design can be folding or stationary.
Under this shelter, a relatively constant temperature will be maintained, comfortable for chickens. A well-made greenhouse can be used more than once. Who knows, maybe it will become a habit for your brood hen to breed chickens in the fall?
If the size of the chicken coop allows, you can separate the corner with a fine mesh and place the chicken with the brood there. For additional heating in this case, you can use the lamp. We place it in the same corner in order to maximize the use of heat.
We use sawdust or hay on the floor, and use a pallet as a feeder so that chickens do not glue the litter.
It is better not to set a drinker in an improvised children's corner for at least the first month, otherwise there is a risk of losing the brood. Chickens belong to land birds, and uncontrolled access of chicks to water harms them. The moisture that comes to them with succulent food is enough for the kids, or, if you do not give them such food, you can milk the chickens yourself once or twice a day. Potassium permanganate can be added to water to prevent intestinal disorders.
Feeding chickens hatched in autumn
Separately, mention should be made of the "diet" for babies. Autumn chickens are initially in a less favorable position, so the diet should be approached especially carefully.
Egg crumbs will help to satisfy the need of kids in calcium. We form the diet to a greater extent from sifted cereals or compound feed, with the addition of eggs. We also give the chicks cottage cheese, crumbs of white bread, fresh vegetables, fruits, berries. You can also give onions - it strengthens the immune system, serves as a natural bactericidal agent. It is useful to add fermented milk products or vegetable oil to the feed. The vitamins they contain have a beneficial effect on poultry health.
When your kids grow up, there will be a need for walks. On the street, especially during cooling, they, of course, can not be released. Ideally, walks are best arranged right in the chicken coop, if the area allows. The plank floor and additional lamps are reliable protectors from drafts and hypothermia. A cardboard box of a sufficiently large size is also suitable for chicks for walking.
We must not forget about the prevention of diseases in chicks. For this we use antibiotics, for example Enroflox or Baytril. We dilute the drug in water at the rate of 0.5 ml per liter of water, give daily from the second to the sixth day, after two weeks we repeat the course.
To strengthen immunity, chickens can be given a 1% solution of ascorbic acid in glucose. Pharmacy ascorbic acid is sold in the form of a 5% solution, in order to make it 1%, it is necessary to add 10 ml of glucose to one ascorbic ampoule. The resulting mixture we catch chickens once, during the first day.
If you follow the rules of care and maintenance, even autumn chickens have every chance of growing up healthy. The main thing is not to give up, and you will succeed in raising chickens in the fall!