2 broody hens both claiming hatched chick

[swansong]

So this is a long story that i will try to make short. About 3 months ago we had a GL wynadot go broody. First set of eggs, no chicks, threw them all out. She started a new batch. Then 2 more hens decided they wanted to do it too! So, now i have 3 seperate boxes started at all different times and the hens seem to rotate a bit on which box they sit in. Here comes the problem. One chick hatched out today and 2 of the hens are claiming it, ignoring the unhatched eggs. I took the peep into the house. The hens were getting really confused on who had the chick, thinking that the "other" hen had it, they were pratically sitting on top of eachother while the peep was running around the coop henless. ( the chick also has a nasty eye injury, so i thought it best to nurse it in the house). I kicked everyone out of the coop today thinking that the break would perhaps clear things up a bit. While the coop was empty i candeled the eggs and reduced them down to only the viable eggs. As things stand now, the peep is in the house and the 2 hens are sitting on the SAME NEST BOX NOW! Any advice? should i split the eggs up into 2 different boxes? i feel bad that these hens dont all have a job to do. I fear that they will just start all over tomorrow morining on a new set of eggs! I plan on reintroducing the hatched, injured peep back when more hatch and the eye has healed a bit.

 

[LunarRayne]

I have seen on here where people have 2 hens in one nest box. My friend doesn't really care where his chickens sit, so long as he gets chicks. He has a lot of chickens, which means a lot of babies. I have seen 3 hens in the same box. They seemed fine. I would not risk losing the eggs either. Sounds like they are both keeping them warm.

 

[swansong]

sounds good : ) i took the peep into the coop today thinking it might be nice for it to see a real momma. Boy was that a mistake. They went crazy. I am now starting to think that they would kill it. Is that b/c of the eye injury? Not sure if this little one is going to have a very nice life : (

 

[DrinkTheRainbow]

OMGEEEE! That happened to me and I dislike it sooo much!!! So, it started with our blue splash mix hen; she laid her egg in there so we left her there...then there were at least 19 eggs after 1 1/2 weeks...most of those eggs were hers but some were also from two other hens. One of the hens decided to not sit on them and went away. The other one stayed and together they hatched the eggs. Of course the other hen stole the blue splash mix hen's chicks and now she has no chicks...(yes, very sad) But now the blue splash is laying again and the chicks will be "weaned" off soon. The other hen will probably steal her chicks again...