Broody hen to raise her own chicks?

[byrnejansen]

Hello all, to get started, we have two broody minorcas. last weekend one of the birds hatched four chicks, then by this weekend, three more. The birds are in the common flock but we are seperating them tonight. The chicks are in our brooder with somemore we hatched in our incubator; last weekend as well. One minorca, the one that hatched the eggs, started setting a month before the other. Our plan is to put ont minorca with the chicks, the other with both clutches. any advice on what bird to set and what bird to tend chicks, also any advice as tostratagees on the transiOthanks pat

 

[chickbea]

I'm a little confused, but that's nothing new!

It sounds like you hatched under the hen, but then took the babies and put them in a brooder? I would have left them with momma and let her raise them from the get-go. Now they will have to be reintroduced to her, and she may or may not appreciate their presence, depending on her personality.
It's always best to slip them under her at night, where she can get used to the feel and sound of them before she actually sees them.
Again, I'm not sure what you are looking to do with the other hen - raise the others in the brooder or a new clutch of eggs?

 

[byrnejansen]

sorry about the first post, i was in a hurry...
we have two minorcas setting, one has been for three months, the other about two. they are in with the common flock; so the eggs are from multiple hens and multiple time frames due to other layers laying in the nests. we are also incubating some eggs. the first minorca hatched a single chick a month ago but did not tend it and instead tended her clutch, the chick died. last weekend she hatched four chicks at the same time that we did. instead of letting the four die we took them and put them with the others in the brooder. we would like these chicks (fourteen of them) to be raised by a hen...
we plan on keeping the later mionorca setting (on new eggs), and the first with chicks, so the question: is it better to bring a chick to hen or a hen to chick?
p.

 

[chickbea]

I'd bring the chicks to the hen. However, you will have to remove all the other eggs she is sitting on, or she will ignore the chicks and keep sitting.
Preferably, I would remove the best broody and put her by herself with a clutch of fertilized eggs, and let her just do the whole job from start to finish. It is hard for the hen when she has eggs layed by other hens and in various stages of incubation under her. Then she is torn between the warring instincts of finishing her hatch, or following the babies!

 

[byrnejansen]

hi, so we are moving the hens into a new space and onto new eggs tonight, one possibly with the chicks, we'll see. bring the chicks to the hen at night.
thanks for the look chickbea. tryin' to do this old fashioned.
p.