Help!

I found a hen that hatched 13 chicks of in a secret nest I didn't know about. She is across the street over in my neighbors yard with her chicks most of the time. They don't care about her being there but I'm still afraid a predator might get her or one of the chicks. I live out in the country and we let our chickens out of their pen to free range every day. We have had problems with mostly dogs, however the owner actually pus his dogs to sleep when the killed 20 of our chickens! Didn't expect that. So we don't have a problem with dogs anymore. All the dogs in hour neighborhood now are either scared of the chickens or think of the chickens as something to herd(we have a lot of herding dogs in hour neighborhood). We have never had a problem with a raccoon. What I'm worried about is a hawk, we have plenty of those, but none of them have ever taken any birds. Still, should I coax her into the coop(80 square feet with 33 chickens inside not including broody or chicks. I'm worried if I leave the hen out something will get her, but if I coax her into the coop the other chickens might kill the chicks, especially since she has so many chicks.

I take it this is your hen? You could introduce her and the babies to your flock and see what happens, but like you said, they may hurt the little ones. Can you maybe put them in a separate area in your run where the rest of the flock can see them, but not get to them?

The flock already found the chicks, the rooster didn't care about them and the broody didn't care about the rooster coming close to the chicks. The other hens just stared at them from about 15 feet away. A couple of hens did come up to check them out but the broody just chased them back over to the other hens. I don't have anywhere else to put them, although I have an old chicken tractor that needs a few minor repairs. I could probably have it fixed in 45 minutes to an hour.

Sounds like mama is doing her job keeping them safe from the other hens. I would either put them in the run with the others and let mama do her job or fix the tractor and place it next to the run so the others can see the chicks and mama but not get to them.

x2