Raising Chickens

Today I went out to Lil Banti's Brooding house and found the first egg she has laid since the beginning of March when she went broody. I was a little surprised to find it because she still seems to be taking care of her chicks. When we go out in the evening I find her fluffed out in the broody stance for her babies to go under her and keep warm. In a few days the chicks will be 6 weeks old. I have been reading and it said that around 6 weeks old chickens stop caring for their young and that you can put them back with the flock. But I am thinking I will leave her with them, until we release the babies with the flock. I have also read that at 6 to 8 weeks they can be released with the adult chickens but that is for a standard size chicken. They are a good bit bigger at 6 to 8 weeks than the bantis.

When do I introduce bantis to the full grown chickens?

I have been doing research and still haven't found this answer. I want my babies to stay safe. So I think I may hold them out a little while longer. But I do look forward to the day when the whole flock can be together.

O' Yeah. I thought all our babies were female, I am thinking now that the black & yellow chick with the rose comb might be a boy. This chickens comb is really bright red... So that is a sign. I didn't even remember this till my little 8 year old sister hit me with the information I had taught her last year... The red comb at an early age normally means rooster!!! oops... I seriously had totally forgot... So out of our three babies, unless its just a breed trait. Then we probably have a boy... Thanks Chey, for the info..lol
As long as all the roosters get along it will be ok. Our other Rooster live great together. Knock on wood.. no problem. I have bee told as long as they are raised together and that the new rooster is put with the flock by 8 weeks that everything should go well. So fingers crossed that everything goes well and my babies cockerel or no cockerel, stay safe...

In other chicken yard news... I haven't been taking their eggs. I normally let them keep the eggs and the rest of the chickens will eat them. And when they build up and no one is eating them I normally take them so that they don't spoil and bust. But this time there was a good build up, probably about 5 days to a weeks worth of eggs and Isis decides to go broody on them. So now I don't know how many eggs she is laying on. Then a day later. The other pile of eggs that only had like 5 or 6 started getting brooded by Ivy. So when one gets up they switch nests and now I have two broody chickens. Neither one has even been broody before. So I figure that with in a week or so they will leave their nests. Hopefully they haven't pulled their downy feathers out to actually keep the eggs warm enough. The first few times lil Banti tried to lay she didn't so nothing came of the eggs. Tonight i have to go chase them off and mark the eggs so I know which eggs are fresh and which ones have been laid on. So, I will update on that in a few days.

Big Red has been doing better as far as I know. No sign of being egg bound in the last couple weeks. Before that I finally got my own taste of removing a bound chunk of egg from her. Not the most pleasant thing to do.... :)