Question, Advice please...broody hen, developing eggs day 14...

I've had 4 or 5 broodies raise their chicks in with the flock.  The mamas have done fine at keeping other hens away from the chicks.  At night she would just cover them wherever they'd gathered, sometimes where I'd planned, sometimes not.  Sometimes the roo helped the mama and sometimes he seemed to ignore the whole operation.  One thing I really like about doing this is, when the mama is through with mothering, the rest of the flock is used to leaving the chicks alone.  They tend to keep to themselves but they are safe.  I just let them sleep huddled wherever they wanted til they decided to join the rest on the roost.  All I did for the mama and babies was find some feed like flock raiser that all could eat, build some steps to the food and water with bricks and concrete blocks, and keep plenty of fresh hay around.  That was it!  It was a real pleasure to watch them grow up this way.  I still had oyster shell out, separately.  Never saw a chick bother it.

I don't know how cold it is where you are.  I did have one batch hatch in a rather cold February, with temps below freezing at night and some days with highs in the 40's and windy.  The chicks were outdoors with mama within the first week, anyway.  They would run around maybe only for a few minutes before running under her to warm up, then in a few minutes they'd be back outdoors again.  They did fine.

I've read accounts of broodies who wouldn't have anything to do with their chicks, though.

Although she will protect them to the best of her abilities, the unthinkable CAN still happen and another hen could definitely kill one of the new chicks.  I thought my own chicken gals were above such beastly behaviour till it happened to a brand-new chick that one of my broody hens was, unfortunately, hatching for some friends of ours. 

I had good luck with letting my new mamas and chicks live in an Igloo-style dog house that we fashioned a little screened-in, predator proof run for.  The lip of the dog house was high enough to keep the babies inside for the first few days; after about a week those little boogers could hop right up on it and by the end of the second week they could actually FLY over it.  Would something like this fit inside your coop?  Or in a shed or barn with a heat lamp for a bit of warmth for the mama?  Don't know how cold it is where you are, and she'll keep the babies warm, of course.

I also once gave a broody a few feed store chicks.  I watched a while and she seemed to accept them.  However, later I found the chicks huddled in a far corner of the coop and mama still on the nest.  I tried putting one back under her and she pushed it out.  So I brooded them.  The rest of the flock was in and out of that coop for a few hours before I found the chicks, unharmed. 

So, yes, hens can kill chicks - but not necessarily.  I might separate mama and chicks if I was hatching and raising valuable chicks with my broody for someone else, but I wouldn't do it if the chicks were to become part of my flock. 

I just hatched 12 in my incubator the same day My hen hatched. I just slipped one under her through the day and she looked at me like "where you gettin those?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farmergreen 

I just hatched 12 in my incubator the same day My hen hatched. I just slipped one under her through the day and she looked at me like "where you gettin those?"

I've had much better luck doing this just after dark, so she doesn't really find them til morning.  But I did get away with it once in the morning.