Broodies, chicks and perches!

[Ashbylife]

This is probaby a very daft question, but here goes! We have 4 maran bantams, one of which in particular keeps going broody. Having read all the great posts on here I'm now dead keen to hatch some eggs at some point (we'll have to buy in fertile ones as no cockerel of our own, but that makes it even more exciting in terms of what we may choose to hatch!). We have a separate run (just wire mesh no nest box or anything) which at the moment serves as a 'sin bin' when trying to get miss broody back to normal, but I'm persuading my OH to convert it for use as a broody ark. My thoughts are to just add a nest box at one end, but does this need to be enclosed and darkened? And after chicks are hatched at what point will they need somewhere to perch to roost at night, or will they just stay under mum in the nest box until they are big enough to mix with the rest of the girls?

[Birdie Wife]

How exciting to be able to choose a new breed to hatch! Do you have a shortlist? I started with a shortlist but it rapidly became a long list and it's still growing They will stay under mum until about 4-6 weeks. Make sure the perches are quite low because at that age the bones are still developing and they can damage themselves jumping off a height. The ark just needs to be quite simple, no different from a normal ark in fact except without the need for perches and a nest box, and be sure to make it rat proof because those little critters can dig their way in and easily kill the chicks and even the hen sometimes too.