maran broody - chicks imminent

hi group, it's been ages since I came on this group, but I have a
simple request that message searching (nor on yahoo dom.bird) doesn't
solve.

I am in the UK and have kept a tiny backyard flock of cuckoo Marans for
years. We have 3 at present(it's normally 6 but 3 have vanished over
the last year). 2 of the 3 are currently broody, and for the first
time, we have put 10 bought-in fertile maran eggs under them. They are
due to hatch on about the 27th. Normally we buy POL though a long time
ago we had day-olds and kept them indoors under a lamp, raising them on
chick crumbs and lots of attention from 3 small children!!.

I have never raised under broodys before though, and was rather hoping
that when they hatched, the two mothers would simply look after the
chicks in the normal 'natural' way. However, though our henrun is big
enough, (it's about 10ft x 30ft) we always let the hens have complete
free range - letting them out of the run in the morning, and shutting
them in at night. I've read through several books on the subject -
including a super 'modern poultry keeping' one from Waaay back in the
1960s!! However I still have one or two questions that some of you
more experienced chick-rearers might be able to answer easily.


1. Do I need to move the hens & hatched chicks from the small henhouse,
or are they ok where they are? I have read about small arks, but as we
only have 3 full grown hens in total, is this really necessary?

2. I feed split maize to the hens, (and water) but because they forage
freely, they get everything else they need, including grit, when they
forage. Do chicks need something extra supplying? chick crumbs
perhaps? or some talk about porridge oats! If I was buying something
in, it would HAVE to be organic though. are there organic chick crumbs
available? or do I just sieve the split maize to get smaller stuff thet
they could swallow easier?

3. How much of a threat to chicks are rats & weasels & stoats? I
guess we have them lurking around somewhere, but it would be impossible
to protect entirely. Do I just take a chance at it until they grow too
big to be a problem? I really don't want to lock them up all day in
the run, and in any case, the run is where the holes are!!

4. At what point should I shine a torch through the eggs to see if any
are growing? there seems little point in mama sitting on the infertile
ones. Will I see anything after a week? 2 weeks?

5. finally, is there anything I've missed that's critical to do?

many thanks in advance for your advice.

tim

ps there was one response to this request on yahoo dom.bird, so thanks
for that one & sorry if anyone has crossposted this response) ALSO
don't reply to me direct, as this rdc86 account gets so much spam that
I auto-delete it.

.

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