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Close quarters? Do you think 4m x 4m (13ft x 13ft) is too small for one hen and 5 chicks? I have been giving them free range time for the last week or so, as they are now quite big, but was reluctant to do that when they were smaller.

Thank you! I think it is quite a big pen for a mum to raise the chicks. I use it because it was an old bird aviary and has very fine mesh walls, whereas my main chook run has "normal" chicken wire, with much larger mesh holes that the chicks can easily get through when they are very little. My...

Thank you. I had this one pegged as a boy for a long time. It was only when Mama kicked out the little black but was happy to accept the light grey that I started to question it, hence my initial question: "Do the mamas kick the boys out earlier than the girls?" He/she does have a much larger...

This was Dad to them all - he was magnificent but sadly the foxes took him a few months back. I am thankful that he left a legacy of chicks :)

This is the "iffy" boy/girl. Definitely the largest of the 5 and comb is starting to show, but the chicks did hatch over a full 7 day window and this was the first one, so is the oldest.

This is the one I am certain is a boy. He's actually the 4th smallest of the 5, but his colouring, stance, beginning tail feathers and comb development says "boy" to me.

This is Mum with the 5 chicks. The "iffy" one is bottom right - note how much larger she/he is than the others.

I'll try to get some photos tonight when I get home. I am still iffy about the big girl/boy - I think there could be the start of tail feathers now, but the mama has quite a big tail for a hen, so it could be just that.

Well Mum & babies have been in a separate coop (about 4m x 4m) from when Mum was brooding, so they couldn't really get far away from each other. I didn't realise, until googling for answers to my original question, that 9 weeks was unusually long to keep them together.

I have a Blue Australorp hen that has been raising 5 babies, the first of which hatched on Christmas Day, so they are all between 9 & 10 weeks old now (Mar 2024). The father of all was a Blue Australorp rooster but the babies aren't all hers - I think 2 are, 3 were eggs from either a Rhode...