Advice for broody mama

[blatham00]

I posted in my intro yesterday that I have a broody hen. She is approximately 15 days or so in. After reading lots of posts I've learned a lot on what to do and what to expect. I do however have a few more questions.. I went out after dark last night and tried to mark the eggs I could so I would know if new eggs were laid. Now I'm learing that before I marked them, others eggs were likely laid at later times and they won't all hatch at once. I plan to move mom and babies to a brooder after they hatch. I don't want to risk losing the later laid eggs if she is incubating them. Can I move mama, babies and the rest of the eggs to the brooder and hope she will hatch the rest? This is my first time and I'm honestly freaking out. I don't want to mess up.. any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Generally she will wait about three days before abandoning the eggs, in case there are any late hatchers. After that she needs to focus on the chicks and won't wait around. You can candle them to see which are at the same level of development, or just wait it out and what happens happens.

 

[junebuggena]

Most hens stop sitting somewhere between 24 and 72 hours after the first chick hatches. Any eggs that remain unhatched will be abandoned. Once she leaves the nest to tend to chicks, she won't come back to continue incubating. And you don't need to remove a hen with chicks from a flock. Removing them just makes reintegration more difficult later on.

 

[blatham00]

I was worried about reintegration but my coops run has a bit of a gap and I fear for the chicks falling down and not being able to get back up or being injured in the process. I plan to put the brooder in the big run where they can all still see each other and interact daily. I just don't want any injuries from falling from the big coop.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I was worried about reintegration but my coops run has a bit of a gap and I fear for the chicks falling down and not being able to get back up or being injured in the process. I plan to put the brooder in the big run where they can all still see each other and interact daily. I just don't want any injuries from falling from the big coop.

My coops are both elevated, one being four feet up. So I built a brooder coop and run under it. How high up is your coop?

 

[blatham00]

My coop is about 3 ft off the ground. I have an interior door that opens on the floor and the run goes down underneath. I close the door each night bc we have a predator issue.

 

[junebuggena]

I was worried about reintegration but my coops run has a bit of a gap and I fear for the chicks falling down and not being able to get back up or being injured in the process. I plan to put the brooder in the big run where they can all still see each other and interact daily. I just don't want any injuries from falling from the big coop.

Chicks learn to use ramps pretty quickly, and by 2 weeks old, they can easily jump/fly two feet.

 

[blatham00]

Good to know. Thanks for all the help!