Advice on first time letting broody chic do her thing

[Nate in WI]

Hello again all!
Last year my attempt to let the broody chicken failed due to too many other chickens bothering her and laying eggs alongside the ones she was already brooding. It was a failure.
This year I have built another coop within 20ft and the 19 chickens and 2 roosters get to freely go in each and at night it's 50/50 housing (roosters seperate). I know with warm weather coming and the same chicken and likely others will get broody. Once this happens I want her to raise her own.
So, my idea is when the first chicken gets broody let her sit on eggs and isolate her via closing the gate and leave her do her thing alone in coop A.
My question is... should I also have one rooster isolated with her (the older one is much less aggressive) and should I let another hen (maybe on older one) with her for comfort?
Any suggestions otherwise?

 

[NatJ]

So, my idea is when the first chicken gets broody let her sit on eggs and isolate her via closing the gate and leave her do her thing alone in coop A.

That sounds like a good plan.

My question is... should I also have one rooster isolated with her (the older one is much less aggressive) and should I let another hen (maybe on older one) with her for comfort?

No, I would not put any other chickens in with her, no matter what their gender.

In my experience, a broody hen does not want to have other chickens near her. She just wants to sit on the nest and be left alone.

When she comes off the nest to eat and drink, she still wants to be left alone: she wants to get done and go back to the nest.

And once the chicks hatch, she wants all other chickens to stay away and leave her chicks alone.

 

[Nate in WI]

very good thank you, great advice. Not sure if our new rooster will allow grampa rooster to sleep at night in the new coop, but i'll figure it out when the time comes.
Thanks alot!

 

[Aunt Angus]

I agree. Isolate her and her eggs. Much less stress for everyone involved - you included.

 

[Nate in WI]

Another quick question, what if 2 chickens get broody about same time, is it ok to leave them both isolated in coop A?

 

[SpicyDisaster]

That sounds like a good plan.


No, I would not put any other chickens in with her, no matter what their gender.

In my experience, a broody hen does not want to have other chickens near her. She just wants to sit on the nest and be left alone.

When she comes off the nest to eat and drink, she still wants to be left alone: she wants to get done and go back to the nest.

And once the chicks hatch, she wants all other chickens to stay away and leave her chicks alone.

Truth. Our top hen went broody and wanted nothing to do with anybody. She'd get up from her trance to eat, drink, and poop twice a day while clucking angrily at anyone who got near to her. She took over the whole side of the nesting boxes and refused to let anyone near her in the box either. Same thing after the chicks were born, lots of "get away" noises and chasing of the other ladies. If you can give her a space all her own within sight of the others she will be just fine.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

My best success was this: Watch that broody hen for a few days to be sure she's fully committed, but I still steal her eggs. When I'm sure, in the late afternoon one day, I move her and the few eggs she's collected from whomever that day into a separate "broody coop". She has an enclosed wooden nest box (about 15"w x15"d x 12"h) with plenty of wood chips. I add more eggs from the day's bounty to give her about a dozen or so total. Then I place a milk crate on its side, open end facing the nest box, with a chick waterer and small dish of food in it, so that she's boxed in but has access to food and water. A couple of bricks on top of the crate keeps it in place. If she wants to sit down, she must sit on her eggs. Sometimes my hen fusses at the change of accommodations and prances around, but by the end of day #2 she's back on the nest and happily broody. Sometimes she'll sit down immediately and tuck her eggs, happy as can be. In any case, I remove the milk crate by about day #3 and all is well.

And NatJ is right - once broody, the hen wants only to be left alone. She will sit. And sit. And sit. Drink and eat maybe, poop once every few days maybe, but 99% of the time, just SIT and tend her eggs. Once hatched, she'll spend all her time cooing and clucking to them, teaching them, and protecting them. She wants no interference from other hens.

When the chicks are a couple of weeks old, I just put her and the chicks back into the big coop in a separate and secure space where they can see and talk to the flock, but no one can harass them. The babies get to meet the bigger family. After a few days of this, I open the coop doors and let them integrate with the big flock. When this happens, momma hen usually races to the nearest dust bath, her chicks happily following along. All the other hens learn quickly to give her a wide berth. At night, she finds one of the old comfy nest boxes and her babies follow and tuck themselves in under her wings as usual - or crowd together in another one nearby.

However..... I have had better survival rates by keeping chicks separated from the big flock, but letting mama hen back into the run whenever she seems ready to leave the clutch, at about 4-6 weeks. She re-integrates like she never left and doesn't seem to care one twit about the babies. I keep the chicks separated from the flock until they are 7-8 weeks old (small still, but fast enough to run between legs of older hens, and still young enough to learn respect without trying to start a fight). If I let the chicks into the run with their mama when they're less than 7-8 weeks, I seem to lose most of them.

It's been trial-and-error, but this system works for me.

 

[NatJ]

Another quick question, what if 2 chickens get broody about same time, is it ok to leave them both isolated in coop A?

Sometimes that works fine, and sometimes it does not.

I've had times when two hens shared a nest, or sat in adjacent nests, and then raised their chicks together.

But I've also read stories of it not working, with one hen driving away the other hen, or injuring the chicks that are not hers, or even stealing chicks from the other hen. I've also read that if one group of eggs hatch first, the other hen may leave her nest to "help" care for the chicks.

I would say: try it if you want to, but have a backup plan in case you need to separate them.

When they are sitting, make sure one does not chase the other away from the food & water (because they might try to eat at the same time). Other than that, if they are happy sitting in the same coop, they should continue to be fine that way until the chicks hatch. At that point, watch them carefully to see if they are still fine, or if there are problems. You might need to move one hen and her chicks into a different pen.

 

[Bantam Mama]

Another quick question, what if 2 chickens get broody about same time, is it ok to leave them both isolated in coop A?

Granted I am a new chicken mama but I have 8 Calico Bantam Cochins three roosters five hens born July 2021.. 4 of the girls began laying eggs in December.Then 4 out of five girls decided to go broody in January!! between the four girls there were

26 eggs. I am now the proud mama of 22 absolutely darling little Cochin Bantams. The other eggs were not viable and one accidentally passed away it’s too painful to talk about.. my first 4 hatchlings are now five weeks.. The last one was hatched on February 16th.. so I have 22 wild little ones in a four man tent in my bedroom!! So after doing research the general consensus was they would not start laying eggs until about nine months old which was great then that would be warm weather.. they started laying in December! I had no nesting box ready.. my fault. Not only did they start laying eggs in December they went broody in January!!! so I put a large dog cage in their coop and covered it with a blanket for security all four of them were squeezed in there together granted they are only a pound and a half each so they all fit fine.. when one of the hens decided to take a break and get some thing to eat… one would Roll the eggs underneath themselves So they continually stayed warm.. even though it wasn’t ideal of a set up they made it thru.. I’m sure they would’ve liked to been totally left alone and they certainly weren’t happy when I had to take each hatchling but I of course I had to it’s bitterly cold in Central Kentucky in February.. maybe my girls are not normal they did get along very well and they helped each other out but I don’t think that is normal.. so my lesson is always be ready in advance… and these little guys are very resilient!!!

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Another quick question, what if 2 chickens get broody about same time, is it ok to leave them both isolated in coop A?

I've heard it can work if the two hens are good buddies, but I haven't had that luck. I had three broodies I kept together once. While sitting, they were fine. But once hatching started, those three wanted to kill each other. It was vicious and violent. I hated to do it, but I had to figure out which mama would accept the others' chicks. I had nowhere else to separate them at the time. It worked out fine. The other two forgot they had chicks almost immediately, and mama #3 raised all 14 by herself.