BROODY HEN & CHICKS

[DourS]

I have some baby wyandottes coming in 2 weeks. Right now I have 2 buff orpingtons that are broody and are in seperate coops. I'm thinking about putting 2 of the babies in with one of the broody hens and let her raise them if she will. My concern is the other 3 year old buff orpintons in the coop. I don't have a way to isolate the mother and babies and I am concerned the other adults will harm the little ones. Does any one have any experience doing this?

Thanks

 

[Aapomp831]

I have some baby wyandottes coming in 2 weeks. Right now I have 2 buff orpingtons that are broody and are in seperate coops. I'm thinking about putting 2 of the babies in with one of the broody hens and let her raise them if she will. My concern is the other 3 year old buff orpintons in the coop. I don't have a way to isolate the mother and babies and I am concerned the other adults will harm the little ones. Does any one have any experience doing this?

Thanks

Can you put up any kind of divider, like some temporary chicken wire? Some people don’t even do that, they just let the mom defend the babies.

 

[DourS]

I would have to move the hen and babies to a new temporary coop which I don't have. I was planning on intergrating then new chicks in with the current flock when they get older. I just thought this might be a better way of doing it.

 

[bobbi-j]

I would integrate hen and babies while the babies are still little so she will defend them as they become part of the flock.

 

[CynthiaDown]

Can you put up any kind of divider, like some temporary chicken wire? Some people don’t even do that, they just let the mom defend the babies.

Yeah... I thought letting mom defend the babies would work and they all ended up dead. I still don't know exactly what happened but suspect that one of the other chickens killed them. There were 5 fluffy little fluff balls. One of those horrible lessons learned. It seemed to work with one of my other hens (with one chick) but no such luck. BUMMER so sad. Next time I will DEFINITELY separate the hen and chick from other hens within the coop - that being said, with my experience with the 1 that did good, I 100% like having it all be "natural"..... makes me wonder how they do it in nature?

 

[50-45-1]

Timid hens at the bottom of the pecking order sometimes cannot defend the chicks.
Also consider your space avaliable. If confined to a small run, this makes it more difficult for broody and chicks to escape.
My flock free range so my broodys have no trouble finding a peaceful spot in the yard to themselves.
I still monitor for the first day or to to make sure broody and chicks are able to cope with the other personalities in the flock dynamic.
So sorry for your baby chicks, and your broodies who certainly saw whatever happened.
We all learn some lessons the hard way.
Since everyones coop and run setup are different, it's sometimes hard to give advice.
What may work for one situation may spell disaster for someone else