Fall brooding? Story and questions

[rojororeo]

When she realized she was locked in, she freaked out, so I let her out. I made openings in the partition that are about 4" X 5" and she easily fits out and the bigs haven't tried to go in. The other bantam isn't laying yet, but I marked the fertile eggs just in case she starts.
So now we are a week away from hatch day. I was going to make a barrier of some sort to keep the chicks in their area.
Will mama still want to get out, or should she be locked in with the chicks? I could close off the openings completely or make them higher up. They are at floor level right now.
Also I have a way to open the side of the milk crate so the chicks can get out. Should I do that before they hatch? Or wait a day or so?
Any advice will be appreciated!

I also have a broody right now who is due next week for hers to hatch. I have a fairly large pen and coop everyone lives in, and within that a separate pen and small nursery coop for the momma-to-be.
As soon as she goes broody, I grab her and put her in the nursery coop with the eggs, food, and water. I block her fully into her coop to keep everyone from bugging her, because usually she gets quite upset the first day I put her in there and won't set, which allows everyone else to mess with the nest. If she is allowed loose in the outdoor part of her pen, she spazzes and won't set that first day, possibly breaking eggs or messing up the warmth of eggs she was given from the main coop. She spazzes because she can see the others and gets upset. Take away her ability to see them, and she gets back to the job at hand nearly immediately.

Then once eggs start to hatch, I use the gate to give her a protected outside area to bring the babies to as the other eggs still hatch. I learned to not allow the other hens in the nursery coop, as they accidently killed at least 2 almost-baby eggs in the past in their curiosity.
Once all are hatched, then I reopen the gate and let everyone figure it out. I've never had issues with baby-pointed aggression, and nor do they attempt to correct babies on food sources or space until the mom says she is done raising when they are 6 weeks or so old.
Heck, my rooster is usually pretty good about helping feed and protect them from the other hens as well.
When momma is done, she just goes back to the main coop at night, leaving the babies alone in the nursery coop. Sometimes they explore the main coop on their own, sometimes not. I usually give them a few weeks of going back to the nursery coop until I finally put them in the adult coop one night, which seems to usually do the trick. (Or when I need the nursery coop for her to set for another brood cycle, lol.

This will be our 2nd clutch of babies this year. The first one, we have 3 cute little 3-4 month olds that I am hoping are all girls by the looks of them. They are all egg laying mutts, so it is hard to tell.

Good luck with your babies! Momma is very pretty!

 

[varidgerunner]

To anyone worried about how your rooster may react to chicks. It is certainly worth watching him, but you could end up with this

I've posted this picture before, but thought you might like to see it.

 

[centrarchid]

To anyone worried about how your rooster may react to chicks. It is certainly worth watching him, but you could end up with thisView attachment 1143957
I've posted this picture before, but thought you might like to see it.

I purposely do similar to prevent discord among chicks and keep Coopers Hawks of chicks after hen weans them.

This is a summer event as shown but can happen in fall as well. Example of co-parenting.

 

[rojororeo]

varidgeruner and centrarchid, those are awesome pics! What breed are those dads? My mutt Polish Crested/?? has never been that fatherly! :O

 

[KentuckyRooster]

So you reintegrate the new chicks with your flock fairly quickly? Are there ever issues with the chicks getting picked on when they're that young? I'm most concerned about my rooster causing issues. But so far wandering around the yard the rooster has pretty much ignored them.

Good luck as well with your missing broody! I hope the predators leave her be. I'm Curtis to see what you end up with in a couple of weeks.

Not the OP but when I have a hen with chicks everyone watches out for her. They are MEAN AS HECK and no chicken wants any part of that. I keep them in the flock the whole time under close supervision. I have found they often end up with lots of "aunties" who are helping. I have seen a tiny japanese bantam launch herself at everything in sight to protect a tiny chick. Everybody backed away from her.

Now that chick is a cochin rooster, and he still loves his momma and his "aunties" and he is more polite than the house raised roosters are when it comes to the other birds because he learned as a tiny baby how to act. He runs the show of course, second to one of the other roos, but he's very kind compared to them.

 

[KentuckyRooster]

I have a broody on eggs (on day 14) and it's my first. I have questions and hope some of you with experience can answer...
She's a Sebright sitting on 3 Dutch bantam eggs. She's only 27 weeks old herself, began laying almost daily about 6 wks ago. I didn't know they can go broody so young. I hated using the broody buster for hens in the past, so decided to let her brood. Currently, we have no rooster, so I obtained the eggs locally.
There are 7 other chickens, 2 are hens, and the rest are pullets same age as the Sebright. Except for a D'uccle pullet, all the others are standard size. They seem to get along despite differences in size. The Sebright stands up for herself, she's fierce and everyone is staying out of her way..
The broody's nest is an upright milk crate in the coop with everyone else. Afraid that the others might disturb her nest, especially when she is out for her daily break, I partitioned off her corner of the coop. When she realized she was locked in, she freaked out, so I let her out. I made openings in the partition that are about 4" X 5" and she easily fits out and the bigs haven't tried to go in. The other bantam isn't laying yet, but I marked the fertile eggs just in case she starts.
So now we are a week away from hatch day. I was going to make a barrier of some sort to keep the chicks in their area.
Will mama still want to get out, or should she be locked in with the chicks? I could close off the openings completely or make them higher up. They are at floor level right now.View attachment 1143594
Also I have a way to open the side of the milk crate so the chicks can get out. Should I do that before they hatch? Or wait a day or so?

Any advice will be appreciated!

Wait until all the eggs are out so momma doesn't wander off with one or 2 chicks leaving the others. When they all hatch and dry off, let them out together. It's best to monitor from a distance, don't be disruptive if you can avoid it. Put some food and water in for mom as the hatch gets close. Usually momma knows best so if she is stressing at being penned up then leave it open and she should stay.

Sebrights are a fiesty breed and she'll protect those babies. My sebright roo is the head honcho around here which is crazy because he pushes around some seriously massive turken hens and 3 roosters who are bigger than him.

 

[varidgerunner]

The birds in my picture are half Asil and half Ga Noi. Both Oriental gamefowl with extremely broody hens, and evidently sometimes roosters. As the chicks age, they become pretty intolerant of the male chicks, when they start showing a little red to the comb, so it's not all butterflies and rainbows. Made for a cute pic though. I would think that if the instinct to brood is in the hens, the roosters of similar breeding could have it too, so you might could see similar behavior in more production oriented breeds.

 

[centrarchid]

Mine are American Games that exhibit characteristics consistent with the bankavid type of game fowl. My hypothesis with broodiness on male side is that it is adaptive when bred in walk (free-range) settings where the father can have biologically significant impact on survival of his offspring. Pic I show not typical but almost all my males can be induced to do it. More typical is where rooster does imprint on offspring and he provides protection from raptors (Coopers Hawks) that specialize on taking his offspring when they are 5 to 10 weeks old. Once chicks about 10 weeks old he directs his interest elsewhere.

See following thread with more details.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-to-look-for-in-a-broody-rooster.882368/

Grandson of cock in picture above has been used repeatedly now as a broody rooster. His youngest male off spring that is 11 weeks old is being used to prevent 8-week old cockerels and pullets from engaging in fights like described by @varidgerunner.


More recently I have taken up purposeful late season rearing and faced some challenges. Chief among them has been increased predator pressure coming from migrant Coopers Hawks.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...emental-heat-in-a-barn.1142347/#post-17769995

Being short on adult roosters vetted for putting in with young birds, I placed in young stags that ultimately served same roles. For some reason hens / pullets do not suppress the fighting that is also of concern.

 

[varidgerunner]

Fall hawk migration is a big downside to fall breeding. Hawks need small chickens. You hear all the time, hawk carried off my hen. In reality, a hawk can't lift off with much weight, and can't fend off a rooster attack on the ground trying to eat. Without small chickens they don't have much of an incentive. Adult hens that go missing usually are the work of a fox, or a hen that decided to go broody off in the woods and didn't show up because a possum got her.

 

[lazy gardener]

Fall hawk migration is a big downside to fall breeding. Hawks need small chickens. You hear all the time, hawk carried off my hen. In reality, a hawk can't lift off with much weight, and can't fend off a rooster attack on the ground trying to eat. Without small chickens they don't have much of an incentive. Adult hens that go missing usually are the work of a fox, or a hen that decided to go broody off in the woods and didn't show up because a possum got her.

This has not been my experience. There is heavy hawk predation in my area. Several summers ago, I lost 3 full grown birds to Northern Goshawk. This prompted me to change up my management style. My flock is now penned in a covered run unless I can be out and about to protect them. When I let them out to free range, hawks often show up within 10 minutes. They are brazen, and will sit in trees and taunt me. They will hang out on the run, trying to figure out how to get into the run, and I've seen a hawk on ground casing out the cockerels in the grow out pen. My neighbor has perfect cover for his flock: pasture with heavy weed and shrub cover. Yet, he has lost a number of full grown birds to red tails. He has also had to keep his flock penned unless he sits vigil to guard them.