Broody hens!

[Ilovechickens2525]

Hello! I have a few broody hen questions!

I currently have three broody hens, the first two are co-parenting, sitting on 4 eggs together. All are fertile. Set to hatch later next week. I’ve never had hens hatch eggs before, how is this going to work out? Will they raise them together? My most assertive hen is one of the mamas. Hoping she protects the babies well… we have no roosters (eggs were given to me from my friend who has my old roosters). The other 6 non broody hens are lower in pecking order and did well with bigger chicks moving in this spring (that I hatched from an incubator). Of course they also chose the highest up nesting box to brood in, Will chicks be ok to hatch up there? Maybe 2.5 feet high off ground.

The third broody hen…. Went broody after the eggs went under the others. She has plucked all her chest feathers out to make a nest for her nonexistent babies… so I’ve put her in broody jail so she doesn’t hurt herself. But how do I trust her to go back in? I have yet to have a hen stop being broody once they start. Also will the others peck at her bare chest? It’s 100% fully plucked. She’s my top hen, top of the pecking order. Will she attack the babies? If she gets reintroduced right before they hatch.

 

[Debbie292d]

We've had two hens co-parent before. The chicks follow both around, sometimes just one, and the other hen follows them. They may all sit under one at night, or mix it up. It should be fine. They will also defend their chicks against the other hen. She may just leave them alone anyway, but if not, she'll learn, and then she'll leave them alone.

Can you secure a wide board from the nesting box to the floor to be a ramp? If not, I'd move them down. Just in case I'd pile some straw underneath the nest boxes.

I've never seen our chickens pick on a hen who plucked her bottom side.

The broodies in our jail usually break in four days. I have one going on two weeks though.