3 hens with chicks together ??

[sab]

3 went broody at the same time. I was planning to slip chicks under them tonight to raise. I've done this before but with only 1 hen. Can I keep the 3 hens with chicks together? I'm trying to create their nursery space today. I'm planning to section off a part of the coop with 3 separate nests but everything else will be common area. Will this work?? I don't want to go out and find a hen killed the chicks of the other birds. I saw another thread where 3 broodies with chicks were fighting. Surely someone with a larger flock has experience with multiple broods. Thanks!

 

[sourland]

Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn't. A lot depends on the temperament of the hens and the space available to them.

 

[Jojosine]

I had the same problem when unexpectedly a hen came back with 7 chicks (she had been missing for 3 weeks), so we had 3 mothers and 13 chicks.
At first we separated all of them in a see-but-no-touch area (this is a short video of the setup) it worked reasonably well, but was a nightmare for us to feed all of the separate areas.
Then we created a larger outdoor space with netting against predators and let them all together, but with separate night coops. There is plenty of cover for the chicks to hide and several feeding and drinking areas and it seems to work well.
However, one of the mothers is very vicious and she attacks the other mothers a lot. The other mothers run away as soon as she comes too close and the chicks got out of the way when fighting started (which happened occasionally, but not so much now anymore).
Thankfully the vicious one has never attacked any of the chicks and all the chicks get along fine.
So, our plan is to take away the mothers and put them back with the main flock when the chicks are 5 weeks old and let the chicks establish a new flock of their own.

Let me know what your solution was in the end.

 

[sab]

What my final outcome was: with 3 broodies I said to the girls - look - only 1 of you gets chicks. The test is tonight. That night I moved one of the broodies to my only other coop area -- a smaller coop within the main chicken pen that I've used as a brooder coop in the past. That girl was not happy and would not settle back to sitting. This was after all 3 had sat on unfertile eggs for 21 days. I gathered those eggs everyday. Anyway she went back to her nest inside main coop. 2nd night I did the same with no. 2. Same result. She went back to main coop. 3rd night I moved no. 3. She has been a mother before. She settled right into sitting on eggs and stayed. 4th night I slipped 7 Tractor Supply pullets under her. She has been a proud momma hen of 7 little girls ever since. We are in week 6 of full integration with the main flock. Although they are still returning to the outside brooder coop at night. I'm hoping momma moves them all into main coop for me. All went well.

 

[Jojosine]

We have gradually moved the mothers back to the main flock one by one and they were accepted back straightaway. The chicks (now 6.5 weeks old) are all visible to the main flock and we are hoping to remove the mesh and netting this weekend so that they can join the flock too. We are hoping that they will go back to their own coop at night as the main flock's coop is too small for 23 chickens even when 13 are still small.

 

[Jojosine]

What my final outcome was: with 3 broodies I said to the girls - look - only 1 of you gets chicks. The test is tonight. That night I moved one of the broodies to my only other coop area -- a smaller coop within the main chicken pen that I've used as a brooder coop in the past. That girl was not happy and would not settle back to sitting. This was after all 3 had sat on unfertile eggs for 21 days. I gathered those eggs everyday. Anyway she went back to her nest inside main coop. 2nd night I did the same with no. 2. Same result. She went back to main coop. 3rd night I moved no. 3. She has been a mother before. She settled right into sitting on eggs and stayed. 4th night I slipped 7 Tractor Supply pullets under her. She has been a proud momma hen of 7 little girls ever since. We are in week 6 of full integration with the main flock. Although they are still returning to the outside brooder coop at night. I'm hoping momma moves them all into main coop for me. All went well.

Today was the big day that the 6.5 weeks' old chicks were allowed into the run with the grown-ups and you were right: all went well and Harvey (the dad) kept watch over everyone. It actually seemed as if the adults were slightly worried about this influx of youngsters!