Broody hens tag teaming the nest ???

[S. Pitman]

So one of my Buffs went broody about 2 1/2 weeks ago. She steadfastly stayed on the nest~which is an old feed box about 3 feet off the ground!~then about 4 days ago another hen got in the box with her and they are taking turns getting down for a bit of water ,but mostly both stay on the nest....is this usual chicken behavior? they seem very content and have about 12 eggs (I have no real count as they are very protective) also I am wondering if I should force move them , now or when they hatch ? I am worried about the babies dropping that 3 feet tot he ground!

 

[wormtowndavis]

I had that happen in the beginning too. 2 of my hens were "co-parenting", as we called it. It seemed to work for a bit, but now, none of the eggs in that clutch have hatched, even though I candled them all to make sure that they were fertile. One of the hens gave up, but the other is still sitting there. I would try to discourage the squatter as much as possible, and in hindsight that's probably what I should have done. As for the chicks falling out, I stapled some fabric pretty taught across the bottom half of the opening to the nest box of the other hen who was successful in hatching, which worked for the first few days, until I moved her and the chicks to an enclosure on the ground so they'd be able to have food and water. I'm still new at this, but so far, this has been my experience. Good luck!

 

[S. Pitman]

Ok I know which is the squatter..so I will kick her out and make it so she she can't return. Since we are coming up on 20 days I guess I will know soon if the will hatch...I didn't candle them. I really didn't pay much attention to this at all until this week, as we had a death in the family earlier. Suddenly I realized that hen had been sitting there all along. So I am not totally sure of the dates.