Broody ditched her chicks!

[bragabit]

Do I need to intervene? I have a free range flock of mixed breeds and ages. We adopted a broody with day old chicks about a month ago. She intergrated into the flock beautifully but kept to herself and took care of the chicks with our roosters help (he is a banty). The chicks were always within feet of her. This last week she started laying eggs. The last couple days the chicks have been scattered. Today she started pecking her own chicks when they tried to feed with her. The chicks are about 4 weeks old. What should I do? The broody is hanging out with the hens (somehting she never did before) and the chicks are sticking together.

 

[annanicole18]

seems to me she is just weaning them off. she might want to nest again and is ready for the next batch

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i'm in the same situation

my broody momma is starting to let her chicks go - i think its too soon. mine are about the same age. a couple nites ago she let her babies roost wherever... and she went and snuggled in with the rooster. and i think she tried to lay today!

if the other hens are leaving your babies alone then maybe they are ok?

thats my strategy...i've made sure mine are roosting with the momma - but they are all together with the older hens (i have an upside down box with a chick sized door for them to hide in if they need to get away). mine are clearly getting enough to eat and do well at free rangin' but they sometimes seem a little far a-field so i scoot them back.

wonder what other folks say???

 

[bragabit]

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Right now, she is really cozy to the rooster who has helped her raise her chicks. If I didn't know better it looks like they are courting.

 

[bragabit]

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I am really interested to see if my Mommy hen goes to the dog crate (with the baby chicks) or if she goes to the roost with the hens and rooster. I am not sure if my babies will go to the roost and stay inside. I am thinking i will move the dog crate inside the roost to try to get them used to it.

 

[Chickenaddict]

Chances are she is done with them and will roost with her boy. The babies are gonna cheep for the first few nights but once they get used to having just each other they should calm down. Just make sure you pen them up somewhere safe overnight. At 1 month old they don't really need her as a heat source anymore provided they are pretty feathered out.

 

[txredneckmedic]

why u so worried about her abandoning 4 week old chicks? this is the facts of life...they grow older, she kicks them out of the nest and starts another batch

 

[bragabit]

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Its more that she was a fierce protector and they free range. We have cats, owls, hawks and racoons. Not to mention the other 20 hens that could kill them in a heartbeat.

 

[Ducklove334]

we had a hen who started to wean her chick off at about 3 weeks, by 4 weeks he was completely on his own.

our momma bantie is going on 4 weeks with her baby, and I think she's getting ready to start weaning him(her?), she still clucks for the baby when shes got a tasty bug, but not as frequently, and she strays from the baby more and more, he/she still trys to snuggle under momma for naps, but the baby is about half as big as momma now!.

when momma is done raising baby, it'll go in with the other chicks until about 10 weeks, by then it should be big enough (big being figurately speaking, being a bantie chick LOL) to go in when the big chickens.

if you have a brooder with other chicks, you might want to put the babies with them until they're bigger to keep them safe.