Hey Backyard Chickens folks, it's been awhile since I posted here, lol. So here's the situation: we have our first flock of 8 chickens that we raised, 7 hens and one roo. One of our seven hens went broody last month. After a week of trying to get her to stop, we gave up and let her brood in the coop nest box of her choice. We set up a wire dog crate connected to the box with food and water so she couldn't sit on the wrong nests and the other's wouldn't disturb her. I attached a pic below. We gave her eggs, she was a diligent broody, four of the eight eggs ended up viable, and they're in the process of hatching right now. We're going to keep the mommy and her chicks in their nest box dog crate set up for a few days and then let them free range with the rest of the flock. What's your experience with free ranging chicks? We understand there's a risk factor but it'd be so much more enjoyable for the flock.
Anyway, in the last week, another hen decided she was going to go broody too. Showing all the signs of broodiness, and definitely determined. And in the last three days, two MORE hens have decided to go broody! Now we only have 3 hens laying!!! Why did they all decide to do this at the same time??? I do not understand them. Here are our crazy broody birds.
So, here's the complicated part, we have an order of day old chicks we're picking up from an Icelandic chicken breeder this Saturday. 24 of em. We set up this order a few months ago, and they're from a different line so they're much more desirable to the future genetics of the flock than any hatchlings from our current stock would be. We do not want to let our hens hatch more eggs, we wouldn't have space and we don't need more baby chickens.
My question: can I just give some of these new chicks to each of the broody hens as adopted babies? How do I go about doing that? If the broodies take to them, I'd keep each broody and her babies separated but in view for the first few days of course, and then let them free range as a flock. Would that work? But is having four mommy hens with their chicks all free ranging together just begging for a fight? I've done a fair amount of research, and it seems that for most, having multiple broodies together seems to work alright, especially if they have ample space. But then I hear that the broody hens could fight for custody and hurt the babies which is obviously not what we want, especially since these are ordered chicks that we've invested in (there and back it's a four hour drive to the breeder). Thoughts?
Though we can brood the chicks ourselves inside, we'd prefer to let the hens raise them because we may as well, it's more natural, its less work for us, we wouldn't have to try to break three broodies, and we wouldn't have to figure out introducing 24 birds to the existing flock when they're older. And it's wonderful to watch the hens raise their own babies.
So what do you think? Any advice is helpful, thank you so much!!!
PS sorry for writing so much, I like to be thorough
Anyway, in the last week, another hen decided she was going to go broody too. Showing all the signs of broodiness, and definitely determined. And in the last three days, two MORE hens have decided to go broody! Now we only have 3 hens laying!!! Why did they all decide to do this at the same time??? I do not understand them. Here are our crazy broody birds.
So, here's the complicated part, we have an order of day old chicks we're picking up from an Icelandic chicken breeder this Saturday. 24 of em. We set up this order a few months ago, and they're from a different line so they're much more desirable to the future genetics of the flock than any hatchlings from our current stock would be. We do not want to let our hens hatch more eggs, we wouldn't have space and we don't need more baby chickens.
My question: can I just give some of these new chicks to each of the broody hens as adopted babies? How do I go about doing that? If the broodies take to them, I'd keep each broody and her babies separated but in view for the first few days of course, and then let them free range as a flock. Would that work? But is having four mommy hens with their chicks all free ranging together just begging for a fight? I've done a fair amount of research, and it seems that for most, having multiple broodies together seems to work alright, especially if they have ample space. But then I hear that the broody hens could fight for custody and hurt the babies which is obviously not what we want, especially since these are ordered chicks that we've invested in (there and back it's a four hour drive to the breeder). Thoughts?
Though we can brood the chicks ourselves inside, we'd prefer to let the hens raise them because we may as well, it's more natural, its less work for us, we wouldn't have to try to break three broodies, and we wouldn't have to figure out introducing 24 birds to the existing flock when they're older. And it's wonderful to watch the hens raise their own babies.
So what do you think? Any advice is helpful, thank you so much!!!
PS sorry for writing so much, I like to be thorough
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