citychicks99
Songster
First time I've had to deal with this.. I had two broodies with a staggered hatch and if I had known how difficult this was I would've broke one of them out of their broodiness.
I wasn't sure what to do but I read a lot of stories of hens fighting over chicks and killing them so I gave each mama their own set of chicks. Now I'm having a difficult time reintegrating them with the rest of the flock.
Mama #1 is the dominant hen and has 4 chicks. They're currently free ranging the yard. Her chicks are almost two weeks old. Mama #2 is currently still in the dog crate in the coop with her two chicks. The youngest one hatched on Friday. I tried letting them out but the hens kept getting into fights and mama #1 is really mean to the youngest, it looked like she wanted to eat it alive.
I thought about separating mama #2 with her two chicks away from the rest of the flock until her chicks get older. But as I think about it, would it make more sense to separate the dominant one to lower her status?
I wasn't sure what to do but I read a lot of stories of hens fighting over chicks and killing them so I gave each mama their own set of chicks. Now I'm having a difficult time reintegrating them with the rest of the flock.
Mama #1 is the dominant hen and has 4 chicks. They're currently free ranging the yard. Her chicks are almost two weeks old. Mama #2 is currently still in the dog crate in the coop with her two chicks. The youngest one hatched on Friday. I tried letting them out but the hens kept getting into fights and mama #1 is really mean to the youngest, it looked like she wanted to eat it alive.
I thought about separating mama #2 with her two chicks away from the rest of the flock until her chicks get older. But as I think about it, would it make more sense to separate the dominant one to lower her status?
