Broody Hen in main coop with other chickens--safe after babies hatch?

[Dingersdad]

Try using wire fencing with holes large enough chicks can get thru but grown birds cannot. I've used scraps of concrete reinforcing wire, like people use for tomato cages, and built a small temporary pen I side the larger yard. Put the chick feed and water in the small "chick refuge" and then they come and go as they please.

 

[aghiowa]

I recently had a broody (Mabel) hatch out 5 chicks. When she was sitting on the eggs, I had her in a fenced-off section of the coop, but 9 times out of 10, the other girls would get in there and lay in her nest. I just marked the fertile eggs, and removed the others once a day when Mabel got off to poop, since it didn't seem to bother her at all (that the others would lay in her nest). Once it got close to hatch, I moved her to a large box which I covered, but left in the coop. They (hen and chicks) stayed there for maybe a week, and then I gave them a covered fenced area inside the coop so the other chickens had a chance to see and hear the chicks but not touch them. Then at about 2 weeks, I integrated them fully. I watched the first outing with all of them together in the run. Mabel had no trouble letting the other chickens know the rules. When any of them would come near her chicks, she'd run flapping and pecking at them. So for a while after that, the others would literally sprint past her or the chicks to get out of the way.

Now (at 4 weeks) Mabel will let them get a little closer, but they definitely don't bug the chicks at all. Of course, it may have helped that Mabel was top of the pecking order before she went broody, and we don't have a roo. Plus, I knew Mabel was an experienced mother, since she had succesfully hatched out ducklings before coming to live with us.

I am of the opinion that if you let the Mama do the work, it gets done better than I could ever do.

Angela

 

[rancher hicks]

Having had a few broodies and chicks.

I move them at night, never in the day. If you have chicks with the big girls you can never tell who will hurt the chciks or not. Though I have had broodies raise chicks with others, I've lost more than a few.

Right now I 've got a broody in a bin with no lid and I moved her at night. She's been sitting for some time and was in the coop but I needed to move her when someone ate her only viable egg. She now is sitting on 5 new eggs. This after sitting for long enough to have hatched the previous eggs. I just hope she'll stay where she is til these hatch. Not that I need the chicks. She just was so determined I couldn't break her. Apparently she is REALLY determined to be a mother.

As for feed what was suggested is good and I've read this advice before. Putting a dish of feed in an area the chicks can only get to. The usual hanging feeder is relatively to high for them to get the layer. Don't forget the water.

I wish you the best

Rancher