Chickens gone wild and broody

1 hen has a wild nest going and looks like the eggs will hatch any day, should I do something or let them manage it on their own?

We have a small flock of 5 (mixed hens) +1 silky rooster. Our hens do not lay regular at all, some days we have 3 eggs some days 1. So I didn't notice very quickly that the white hen (she lays blue eggs) was not laying, until I noticed she was not in the hen house at night last week. Now I have done a bit of research and see that it takes 21 days. She has a clutch of 24 eggs in the bush, plus 2 from our other hen that lays pink eggs. She comes out every day and is very healthy looking, eats, drinks, ect. Our rooster is very efficient he manages to get her even when she comes out for 15 minutes each day, I think he keeps a list. Our other hens (2black mixed) go broody if an egg gets left in the next box over night (both of them).

1)Will the chicks be safe if left in the wild nest and to roam free with the other hens?
2)If she leaves the nest while the eggs are unhatched my son wants to move the other eggs to the next box and let the others hatch them.
3)Any guess' to what color the babies will be? The silky is gray (photo) and the hen (looks like a leg horn but lays blue eggs) is white.

fairie said:

1 hen has a wild nest going and looks like the eggs will hatch any day, should I do something or let them manage it on their own?

We have a small flock of 5 (mixed hens) +1 silky rooster. Our hens do not lay regular at all, some days we have 3 eggs some days 1. So I didn't notice very quickly that the white hen (she lays blue eggs) was not laying, until I noticed she was not in the hen house at night last week. Now I have done a bit of research and see that it takes 21 days. She has a clutch of 24 eggs in the bush, plus 2 from our other hen that lays pink eggs. She comes out every day and is very healthy looking, eats, drinks, ect. Our rooster is very efficient he manages to get her even when she comes out for 15 minutes each day, I think he keeps a list. Our other hens (2black mixed) go broody if an egg gets left in the next box over night (both of them).

1)Will the chicks be safe if left in the wild nest and to roam free with the other hens?
Once her first chick has hatched, move her, the chick and the remaining eggs to a coop and allow her to finish hatching then. You could leave them if you want, but a rat could easily steal a new born chick through the night. I would maybes leave it until a few have hatched, but it's up to you.
2)If she leaves the nest while the eggs are unhatched my son wants to move the other eggs to the next box and let the others hatch them.
Do you mean after she has chicks or before? You can only remove some of the eggs to put with others if the others are broody.
3)Any guess' to what color the babies will be? The silky is gray (photo) and the hen (looks like a leg horn but lays blue eggs) is white.
Dont have a clue, thats the fun with mixed breeds

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Answers in the box

I cover such hens / nest sites with a light pen where nest is well away from edge. When chicks hatch I make so hen can come out to forage and go back in at night where pen is closed again. Most hens return to nest site unless disturbed. I also encourage hens to nest in a dry cover box once chicks hatch. Can provide pictures of procedure later.

1)Will the chicks be safe if left in the wild nest and to roam free with the other hens?

Your risk is not from the other hens or the rooster. The risk is from predators. Hens have been raising chicks with the flock for thousands of years and they are not extinct yet. You meet one of the main criteria for that to work as far as the other chickens, they have plenty of room. It’s almost always where people shoehorn the chickens into a very tight space that you have problems with other chickens. If Mama has space she can manage quite well.

I don’t know how big your predator risk is. That is for you to decide.

2)If she leaves the nest while the eggs are unhatched my son wants to move the other eggs to the next box and let the others hatch them.

Here is where you almost certainly have a problem. I just don’t see how she can cover 26 eggs at the same time. If a hen cannot cover all the eggs, some get pushed out and cool off. As she turns them, some get pushed back under her and others pushed out to cool off. When you have too many eggs for the hen to cover you very seldom get good hatches. I have seen a hen hide a nest and show up with 18 chicks so some hens can cover a lot of eggs, but I’ve also seen some hens where 12 eggs of the size she lays is the limit. Hens and eggs come in different sizes so there is no magic number for how many of those eggs is the limit for that hen. You might consider getting one or both of the other two broody and splitting the eggs now, not later, if that is an option.

In a normal situation where all the eggs are started at the same time, it is unusual for the hen to leave the nest before all the eggs that are going to hatch have hatched. The chicks can go three days or more without food and water since they absorb the yolk. When the chicks internal pip they start talking to Mama so she knows more are coming so she stays around. But if the hatch times are spread so much that the first chicks to hatch need food and water, Mama usually choses to take them to food and water and abandon the unhatched eggs.

Yours is not a normal situation with that many eggs. It is likely the hatch will be stretched out because of some eggs cooling more than others. They don’t always die when they cool off, depends at what stage they are on and how much and how long they cool. It is possible she could abandon some viable eggs.

3)Any guess' to what color the babies will be? The silky is gray (photo) and the hen (looks like a leg horn but lays blue eggs) is white

Nope, no telling. They are obviously mixed genetically. There are different ways that the white on the hen can mask about any other color or pattern. With that mix you can wind up with almost any color or pattern or you could wind up with a lot of them white.

Its all very exciting around here. My son spent the day building a "chick house". A place for the hen and chicks to live in when they hatch. One section is water proof and a good spot to move the next into. The other half is a frame with chicken wire around it to keep the chicks in. We live in Germany so the predators are mostly rats, weasels, maurder(dont' know in english) and fox. We are going to put them in the chicken yard in their own house, then the others will get to know them too.

I guess when she comes off the next tomorrow I will move some of the eggs. We marked them all 2 days ago so that we knew how many there are. Will she continue to lay while she is broody?

If we get chicks that hatch at different times can we add them to the white hens brood? Is it best to keep one mom with the babies?

How long do I have to keep the babies "safe"? When can they roam free with the rest of the flock and go back to the chicken house at night with the others?

My guess is "maurder" is your colloquial term for raccoon. I am pretty sure you have them there.

Hi, We live in Northern Germany where they have "washbear" that's a raccoon that migrated over hundreds of years of ago. We don't have any that live around us, just iegels (hedgehogs). Maurder is something that get's in peoples cars and eat the wiring, and kills pet rabbits and free range chickens. I know that we have them cause they snack on our farmers chickens and pet rabbits often. But we have a cat and a dog in our yard so I doubt they would be daring enough to come in. But we do have rats, seen them scurrying around.

Raccoon introduction was some time ago. Populations dense enough to have a television special on them. They are not the same as raccoon dogs occurring further east.