Aggressive Broody Hen

[peanutfeather]

So our Porcelain D'uccle bantam went broody. My dad actually found under her about 30+ eggs, 20 which weren't hers, but she laid 10 eggs and we know because those are her egg shapes. And when this happened, I was at my cousin's house sleeping over so I didn't have any news of it until I came home. My dad said she started sitting on the eggs on Wednesday which is 6 days away from today. But I have no clue if this is true because the eggs don't even have veins yet! But recently (about 1 hour ago) I candled all 10 eggs (we removed the other eggs because they have been there for who knows, maybe 1-3 years?) and all show signs of fertilization. Every egg has an air sac which grows day by day, and the yolk covers almost all of the egg other than the air sac. Everyday I'm going to candle the eggs because it's basically an addiction and this has been my 2nd broody hen so I'm curious to know and see the embryo inside the egg.

But do you really think the eggs started progress on Wednesday? My first broody hen's eggs (she was a silkie but the eggs weren't hers) had first started showing thin, red veins on day 5. But I'll just see.. and keep in mind these are bantam eggs.

Oh and also my d'uccle is so aggressive, it's not even funny

. Anytime she sees a chicken go near her cage (i put her in a cage BECAUSE her original broody spot was under my neighbor's porch. predators could easily get her there and i didn't want to take that risk of leaving her there. and over 3 years eggs piled up there so she laid her eggs there so in total there were about 30 eggs...

her small little body couldn't possibly cover all those eggs!!)
I'm just so scared if she will hurt the chicks when they hatch. It's like chickens love eggs more than their chicks

!!! My first broody hen didn't hurt her chicks, because she wasn't aggressive toward me or any other chickens. she was the runt and still is the runt! so i'm just worried that since this broody hen is aggressive toward me and other chickens maybe she will hurt her chicks!


Thanks if you can just give me a little back-up on the things I'm worried about.

If you need any pics of anything let me know!

 

[roostersandhens]

When your broody's chicks hatch, you should put them in a pen away from the other chickens. You should do this even if you didn't have an aggressive hen. Keep them in the separate pen for at least 1 - 2 weeks. You want the chicks to be stronger, but you also want to make sure they are still at the age where the mother will defend them when putting them with the other chickens. The hen should defend her chicks from your aggressive d'Uccle.
Good luck!

 

[peanutfeather]

Oops!

I meant to tell you that the cage is separate. My dad built a portable chicken cage that is a pretty good size. Well, good enough to fit 10 bantam chicks and 1 bantam

. We also used this cage for my 1st broody, the Silkie with her 2 chicks. She actually had 6 eggs but 3 turned out to be non-fertile. 3 hatched but 1 chick died and we have no clue how except maybe she crushed it. So I have 2 chicks now.

And the aggressive d'Uccle is actually the broody hen. I hope she doesn't wreck things.

Any idea what to do? I mean... the Silkie didn't hurt the chicks other than the 1 that died. But it could have been a sickness or lack of nutrition. The 2 chicks follow their mom to this day but the Silkie doesn't seem to recognize her chicks anymore. The chicks hatched on June 5th so.... that will be.... what, 29 days old? Wow I didn't realize how old they are

!!
I'm getting off topic ... anyways, I want the chicks to be attached to their mom when they hatch so I don't want to take them away when they hatch. The hen will probably be upset too.

Any ideas??