Need advice on broody hens and misc.(kinda long)

[ctcasper]

Ok .. Heres our setup... two 8x4 wire triangle shaped tractors with tin on one end for shelter and one 6x7 coop ... we had 17 smaller (12 weeks) hens and roos that we hatched in one of the tractors, one roo in the other and 7 hens and one roo in the coop.

My dilemma, two hens are broody and we want to let them set. One has been setting for a week, the other like 3 days. They switch boxes though, is that ok? Also, now I had one other hen sit on one set of eggs while the other chicken was eating and then she went back and sat in a third box that currently only has 2 eggs. I am not sure if the third is a true broody so watching that very carefully. But I want to move the two original broodies and the two original nests of eggs later tonight when they have settled in.

I moved all the hens from the tractor into the coop and everyone seems to be getting along okay ....i also moved the roos for butchering in with the older roos ... we are going to put the two broodies in the tractor that is now empty. Is it ok to put them together? Does it matter if they switch nests? Also, i know that some of the other hens have been laying in those nests so they are probably going to have a staggered hatch... I dont care so much if a few eggs are wasted but I am not sure how to handle that exactly?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, sorry so long but needed to get all the info out there.

Tara

 

[Judy]

There won't be much staggering as the mama will get off the eggs and raise the chicks pretty quickly after the first one hatches (maybe 24 hours.)

If you have been marking the eggs, you could put the older ones under one hen and the newer ones under the other.

I'd be inclined to separate them from each other. Don't much like cages, but broodies only move once a day anyway. I just let mine out each AM, she ran around outside and did her thing for maybe 20 minutes, then back on the nest, and I closed the door to keep the others out. Removed the cage as soon as hatching was done. Worked fine.

 

[ctcasper]

I dont really have anything to put them in seperately though.....i was hoping this would be ok ... an to top everything off we are going away for the weekend, so i am starting to worry a little

 

[Debbienmousey]

Putting the broodies in their own tractor would be good, you don't want those broodies getting kicked off their growing eggs.

The hens switching boxes should be fine although for some reason I'm picky about who gets on what nest. But if I had a separate coop for the broodies I probably wouldn't care until hatching time. (I have to lock my broodies on their nests until I can let them out for 10-20 minutes each day, so that other hens won't steal their nests)

During incubation, the two broodies living in the same tractor will be fine. They may avoid each other but that's what broodies do. After the chicks hatch, you may want to consider separating the mother hens because they may peck/kill each others chicks. (At least separate them till the chicks are 2-3 week olds, after about 2 weeks the mothers are less protective, but can still do damage to a young chick)

As for the staggered hatch, in our experience so far, a really good broody (At least one which is really determined to hatch her eggs.) will wait as long as she can to give up the unhatched eggs. Mama hen knows when her chicks are truly hungry, and you can always put chick feed semi-close to the nest so the chicks don't have to go far to eat.

If you have an incubator and the hen leaves her nest quite quickly with another bunch of eggs ready to hatch soon, just pop them in your incubator and after they hatch you could try and give them to the hen (At night only, and I've never done this)

I hope I helped

 

[ctcasper]

We dont have an incubator yet, that is why we are so excited about the broodies... we moved them last night into two nesting boxes in the empty tractor, the one hen hasnt been setting all morning, but the one has and just got out now, is checking out the new surroundings, I hope she gets back in ...

Has anyone ever heard of broodies sharing the incubation of one nest... my one chicken sits on the nest at night instead of roosting and then it seems the other takes over during the day because she is still in the coop and is setting in a box in there and before they were trading off in the nesting box? Daisy is the one we moved because she sets through the night and she is lower in the pecking order so would she give up a nest to someone higher in the pecking order? I am so confused, maybe its just their inexperience thats got them not knowing what to do????

I just dont know what to do???

Any advice