Broody is anxious

[littlekit]

My broody hen hatched out four babies last thursday. We moved her into a secure and portable coop, about 3x4 feet. Mama hen is very anxious and wants to take the babies out of the coop but there are just too many hazards. I let her out this morning, and a board fell on the babies mushing them into the grass. They all seem to have recovered but I have not! It was traumatic and I feel like a bad caretaker. It is cold and windy, high about 42 this morning. Should I bring the family into the house? What can I do to ensure safety and also help Hen to not be so anxious?
Thank you.

 

[elmo]

It's just her natural instinct to get out and scratching in the ground. You do have chick starter and water in the pen, right?

What I did is put together a portable, makeshift broody pen that I can put out in our yard:

It lets the hen and her chicks get some exercise, safely. Since it's not predator secure, though, I don't leave them unsupervised. It does keep me from having to chase the chicks around the yard, though.

 

[littlekit]

Yes, I have chick starter and water in the portable coop. It is large enough, and has wire on the bottom, and grass poking through, but Hen wants OUT. I let her and the babies out yesterday, supervised, and she ran to some mulch and took a dust bath for about 20 minutes, and all four babies copied her (it was very cute!). But I cannot let her out very often because we have other free range chickens and barn cats, blue jays and hawks. Not to mention cold and wind and other hazards like dumb people propping up boards!

This is the coop back in the fall. Now we have sheets and boards around it to protect from the drafts.
And the ramp is covering the upper level. No heat lamp.

Did you keep your broody and chicks in the house?

 

[elmo]

Aha! It probably was the dust bath your hen was wanting. I've noticed our broody hens are mad for them. I'm very worried about mites, especially with chicks, so I change out the nestbox bedding frequently and put poultry dust down on the bottom of the box before I put in fresh bedding. It doesn't mean the hens have mites, just that their instinct is probably to dustbathe to prevent them when they've been sitting in the nest for long periods.

Right now I have three hens, all raising broods. I have two runs and a tractor. Two of the hens each get a run to themselves, and the third one goes in our tractor unless it rains or looks like rain. One of the hens has chicks with some problems (pasty butt yesterday, a late hatching chick that got left behind by the hen) so mostly I keep this brood in the small broody pen I showed you on our screened breezeway. I sit out there (I'm there right now) keeping an eye on them. They're doing fine now, with the hen really doing a good job mothering.

I was ready to move them out to one of the runs yesterday when pasty butt struck one of the chicks, so now I'm going to watch them for a day or so more.

 

[littlekit]

How long will you keep the the broodies and chicks separated from the rest of the flock?
When you let the broody out to dust bathe, do you let the chicks go with her?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

If your hen was that anxious to get out & dust bathe you should check her well for mites. There're easy to remedy with some insecticidal powder dusted under her wings, around her vent, and behind her neck. It's okay for the chicks to be exposed to the dust on her feathers. Change the bedding in her pen & nest and dust there too.

You can give her dirt to bathe in right in the pen, by placing it in a pan for their use or by digging up a bit of grass in the pen. The babies will want to join Mama in the dust-bathtub too.

Some hens are better at protecting their chicks from other adults, some adults are more tolerant of chicks than others. But to be safe I keep my chicks separate until they're a good size & fully feathered, maybe around 8-10 weeks or more.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Right now, there is no "rest of the flock." All I have are the three hens and their chicks.

Yes, I don't separate the hen from her chicks. That would distress them both far too much.

My plans for integration go something like this. I'm going to set that little makeshift broody pen with the lowest ranking hen and her chicks inside one of the bigger runs with the second ranking hen and her chicks, probably in a few days to a week. I'd do it sooner only the second ranking hen's chicks are very small and have had some problems. If all goes well between hen no. 2 and 3, I'll take down the broody pen and let them mix, and watch how it goes.

Integrating these hens with the top hen will be tricky. She's vindictive, and has a history of chasing hen no. 2, even before she went broody. My plan is to let them mix while free ranging around the yard, maybe in a month or so. We'll see!